Table of Contents
Definition of Blue-collar
(adjective) Relating to manual work or workers; working class.
Blue-collar Pronunciation
Syllabification: blue col·lar
Audio Pronunciation
Phonetic Spelling
- American English – /blOO-kAHl-uhr/
- British English – /blOO-ko-luh/
International Phonetic Alphabet
- American English – /ˈbluˈˌkɑlər/
- British English – /ˌbluːˈkɒlə/
Usage Notes
- Plural: blue-collars
- Blue-collar is a reference to the durable blue denim shirts historically worn by manual laborers, referred to as blue-collar workers.
- The earliest listing for “blue-collar” in the Oxford English Dictionary is in 1929.
- “Blue-collar” is often used in a derogatory sense to indicate lower socioeconomic status to others. Conversely, it is used to indicate pride in ones own status.
- Blue-collar is contrasted to white-collar.
- Variant spellings:
- blue collar
- bluecollar
- Also called:
- wage-earning
- working class
Related Video
Additional Information
- Word origin of “blue-collar” – Online Etymology Dictionary: etymonline.com
- Lavelle, John F. 2012. Blue Collar, Theoretically: A Post-Marxist Approach to Working Class Literature. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
- Mikalachki, Alexander. 1969. Group Cohesion Reconsidered: A Study of Blue Collar Work Groups. London: School of Business Administration, University of Western Ontario.
Related Terms
Works Consulted
Abercrombie, Nicholas, Stephen Hill, and Bryan Turner. 2006. The Penguin Dictionary of Sociology. 5th ed. London: Penguin.
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. 5th ed. 2011. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Bruce, Steve, and Steven Yearley. 2006. The SAGE Dictionary of Sociology. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Ferris, Kerry, and Jill Stein. 2010. The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology. 2nd ed. New York: Norton.
Merriam-Webster. (N.d.) Merriam-Webster Dictionary. (http://www.merriam-webster.com/).
Oxford University Press. (N.d.) Oxford Dictionaries. (https://www.oxforddictionaries.com/).
Princeton University. 2010. WordNet. (https://wordnet.princeton.edu/).
Random House Webster’s College Dictionary. 1997. New York: Random House.
Scott, John, and Gordon Marshall. 2005. A Dictionary of Sociology. New York: Oxford University Press.
Turner, Bryan S., ed. 2006. The Cambridge Dictionary of Sociology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wikipedia contributors. (N.d.) Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. (https://en.wikipedia.org/).
Cite the Definition of Blue-Collar
ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “blue-collar.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved April 23, 2024 (https://sociologydictionary.org/blue-collar/).
APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)
blue-collar. (2013). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/blue-collar/
Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “blue-collar.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed April 23, 2024. https://sociologydictionary.org/blue-collar/.
MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)
“blue-collar.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2013. Web. 23 Apr. 2024. <https://sociologydictionary.org/blue-collar/>.