Etymology

blue Smarties

Today it means: Something that causes great excitement or hyperactivity. Full definition →

Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

From the British chocolate sweet Smarties. The blue-colored Smartie was temporarily withdrawn by the manufacturer until a natural blue dye was found – this led to a popular belief that the blue Smartie was withdrawn for causing hyperactivity, although brilliant blue FCF is not one of the food colourings associated with hyperactivity.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.