It's petrel, not petrol, when talking about the colour...

[MirandaGoshawk]

It's spelt wrongly in all the bloody clothes catalogues. Have they not noticed that petrol, if you spill a drop a fiver's worth is clear?

A petrel, OTOH, is a bird. A blue one. Petrel blue. Can we start a campaign?

petrol
?p?tr(?)l/
noun
Brit.
noun: petrol;?noun: petrol blue;?plural noun: petrol blues

1.
a light fuel oil that is obtained by distilling petroleum and used in internal-combustion engines.
"petrol fumes"
synonyms:	fuel; More
unleaded, superunleaded, diesel;
gasoline, gas;
informaljuice
2.
a shade of greenish or greyish blue.

petrel
?p?tr(?)l/
noun
noun: petrel;?plural noun: petrels

1.
a seabird related to the shearwaters, typically flying far from land.

No colour listed in the dictionary definition of petrel. It's definitely petrol, I'm afraid!

Is the lesson of this thread not to be a spelling fascist because you might be wrong?

Lunatic, perhaps you should be pouring owl on troubled waters!

High five Hanging and Lunatic!

Dictionaries just reflect current usage which may be wrong Ref. new definition of 'literally'

I'm thrilled so many people are contributing to this - I've never seen Pedants' Corner so crowded, so hard to get served at the bar!

Anyway, I'm off for a week to the back of beyond, (East Anglia ) no computer & only have a thick phone so will leave you all to this & see if anyone comes up with any more thoughts while I'm away.

*Is the lesson of this thread not to be a spelling fascist because you might be wrong?

I'm afraid petrel blue gets rather hammered in a google fight...

Definitely petrol. Posting a link to a commonly misspelled word proves nothing. I used to typeset clothes catalogues and people used to get it wrong then too.

Ahem.

According to QI, kingfishers are actually a murky brown.

Raisin

you mean like Muphry's Law?

(I didn't mis-spell it. Google Muphry's Law)

Never heard it called petrol blue before

Rusty I might just love you, I thought of we didn't mean to go to see too

Miranda - hope you've packed your passport. Us bumpkins don't just let anyone I'm

Even my phone chances it
Never heard of petrel blue before I mean

Aww, OP leaves pedants corner for a holiday.
It's too crowded apparently :-)

No, not at all OP. Fairly quiet to be honest.
Being wrong is tough.
It's ok to admit it.

He, he, I love Muphry's Law! Thanks.

Hey, in the States, is it called "gasoline blue" do you think? Somehow it doesn't have the same ring about it...

I just realised this is in pedants' corner and then reread what I had written in my stupor last night.

It's petrol blue

I have always visualised it as a dark grey oily patch of petrol with the blue rainbow reflection as it appears when petrol floats on water.

I think it unlikely that a colour be named after an obscure Hawaiian sub species of blue-greyish petrel.

OP, would you like to take on Farrow and Ball about the endless publicity for their new blue, Stiffkey Blue? They claim that the phrase 'Siffkey Blue' (pro "Stookey Blue") is after the mud on Stiffkey mudflats. It isn't. Any local or regular visitor knows that Stiffkey Blues are the local cockles, dug up on said sand and mud flats. The mud is black!

And even the locals can't agree whether it's said stookey or stiffkey. Same with cley, is it cly or clay?
Is stiffkey blue for people who can't afford to paint their houses in burnham market land rover green?

It's for people who are not cool enough for Morston Car Park Mud Splattered Skoda, I think.

Petrol was blue, it's now red

Just got irrationaly excited that weather lass on 'Countryfile' was wearing a patrol blue card. I definitely spend too much to time on MN.

I've either invented a new colour or Muphry is trolling again.