Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) a Canadian, esp. a resident of Nova Scotia [SE bluenose, a variety of potato native to Nova Scotia, but note late 17C Scot. bluenose, a Scot. Presbyterian and the stereotyped New England Yankee, seen as blue-nosed adj. (1), thus the northern nose is blue with chilly disapproval].

1785		in Acadiensis Jan. (1902) 65: The Blue-noses, to use a vulgar appellation [...] exerted themselves to the utmost of their power and cunning.
1830		Northern Watchman (Troy, NY) 30 Nov. n.p.: A real bluenose, fresh from the land of steady habits.
1836		T. Haliburton Clockmaker I 60: One of those blue-noses, with his go-to-meetin clothes on.
1843		T. Haliburton Sam Slick in England I 91: ‘Can you tell me why the Nova Scotians are called “Blue-noses?”’ ‘It is the name of a potato,’ said I, ‘which they produce in great perfection.’.
1847		Sir G. Simpson Overland Journey I 19: After a run [in the steamer] of fourteen days, we entered the harbour of Halifax, amid the hearty cheers of a large number of blue noses [B].
1853		Knickerbocker (N.Y.) xlii (Nov.) 545: A little boy, accompanying his mother to New Brunswick, said to her: ‘Mother, are those all Blue Noses?’.
1855		T. Haliburton Nature and Human Nature II 255: ‘Blue-nose Mary.’ ‘What in the world do they call her Bluenose for?’ ‘It is a nickname for the Nova Scotians.’.
1865		G.A. Sala My Diary in America I 107: A sensation line, ‘Base Complicity of the Blue-noses’ – implying that the desperate act had been gotten up by the inhabitants of Halifax.
1865		Border Watch (Mt Gambier, SA) 24 June 3/1: Blue Noses — by which slang name [...] the natives of Nova Scotia and Now Brunswick are dubbed.
1871		Cairo Dly Bull. (IL) 20 Dec. 2/4: Nova Scotia, blue nose.
1883		J.T. Keane On Blue-Water 188: The little games that went on board her were in real good ‘blue-nose’ style.
1889		Century Dict.
1895		N.Y. Mercury 1 Jan. in Ware (1909) 38/1: This ought to make recruiting brisk in Canada and incite the blue noses to volunter in a mass to defend Queen Victoria’s codfish.
1895		Coburg Leader (Vic.) 5 Oct. 4/3: [T]he canadian blue nose absolutely left his glass pint of Tullock and McLaren’s ale untouched.
1900		Reno (Nev.) Eve. Gazette 28 Apr. 2/2: A native of Nova Scotia is a ‘blue-nose’.
1902		Shields Dly Gaz. 16 Oct. 4/5: I was resolved that no ‘Blue Nose’ that ever breathed should maltreat me.
1907		Carr & Chase ‘Word-List From Eastern Maine’ in DN III:iii 241: Bluenose, n. A native of New Brunswick who is not of French extraction. ‘The Bluenoses come from New Brunswick.’ The connotation is uncomplimentary.
1908		Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Oct. 39/1: We had a nigger on board when we started from Melbourne that thrip – the skipper picked him up dhrunk one night outside Antonio’s, where the Russians an’ the dagoes an’ the Dutchmen an’ the Bluenoses all booze together quiet an’ friendly.
1922		Broadway Brevities Aug. 36/2: Estelle Penning and her nice mumma are spending the summer way down in Nova Scotia, at Lower Argyle, near Yarmouth. Estelle promised to send us some jottings from the land of the bluenose.
1931		B. Lubbock Bully Hayes 18: He was no hazing, heavy-fisted, knuckle-duster bucko of the Down-East and Blue Nose type.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

2. (US) a Northerner, esp. a New Englander.

1858

O.W. Holmes Autocrat of the Breakfast Table 73: The Provincial blue-noses are in the habit of beating the ‘metropolitan’ boat-clubs.

3. a Nova Scotian ship, or a member of its crew.

1896

‘Frederick Benton Williams’ (H.E. Hamblen) On Many Seas 144: it was a very creditable act on the part of the ‘blue nose,’ for many a skipper would simply have starved and worked [...] his crew until they would have been glad to clear out.

4. (US) a dedicated, fanatical puritan, almost invariably a teetotaller; also attrib. [orig. an aristocrat (who had ‘blue blood’), bluenoses passed the repressive ‘blue laws’ that restricted the morals of many states ? + the opposite of the drunk, who boasts a conspicuously red nose].

1916		Sun. Times (Perth) 10 Dec. 95/2: An ornate prayer’s scarcely part of the game when the lusty bluenose fills his face.
1927		(ref. to 1890s) H.C. Brown In the Golden Nineties 187: With a lot of blue noses on the Board, this concession was not secured without great diplomacy.
c.1930		(ref. to late 19C) N. Kimball Amer. Madam (1981) 88: A cathouse was usually called by its madam’s name [...] It was dangerous to become too fancy or too famous; the bluenoses sniffed those out.
1933		W.R. Burnett Dark Hazard (1934) 141: Racing will always be on the edge down here. Too many blue-noses and long-hairs.
1942		W. Winchell On Broadway 30 Oct. [synd. col.] Lots of the Representatives from the corn bread and by-cracky belts haven’t got the ‘moxie’ to nix a blue nose measure.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 109: The section called ‘Americana’ where all the bluenoses, bigots and two-faced killjoys [...] got a going-over.
1951		(con. 1860s) S. Longstreet Pedlocks (1971) 29: I remember when Queen Victoria accepted chloroform for the delivery of her seventh child, Prince Leopold, in 1853. How the Church and the blue-noses screamed.
1955		B. Appel Tough Guy [ebook] [I]f someone, some bluenose, had cried, ‘Down with Drinking!’ the crowds, even the drunks, would have agreed with equal moral fervor.
1962		T. Berger Reinhart in Love (1963) 262: Bluenose Reinhart [...] slept very late next morning [...] in his chaste bed.
1968		(con. late 19C) S. Longstreet Wilder Shore 74: [Quote from R.J. wine merchant in San Francisco 1859–1910] ‘Mr. Crocker is a bit of a blue-nose even about social drinking.’.
1971		L. Bangs in Psychotic Reactions (1988) 57: A two-sided single whose titles were ‘Give It To Me’ and ‘I Cant Control Myself’ was on a collision course with some ultimate puissant bluenose from the start.
1994		P. Hamill A Drinking Life (1996) 183: Then, as in my own 1953, right-wingers, bigots, bluenoses, and puritans ruled America.
2000		T. Udo Vatican Bloodbath 35: The other bluenoses around the table joined in. ‘Keep St George in your heart...’.
2002		H. Schecter in Gaddis & Long Panzram (2002) 2: Another widely embraced delusion promoted by an army of bluenoses [...] and [...] moral watchbogs.

5. someone who sees themselves as superior to their neighbours.

1939		Howsley Argot: Dict. of Und. Sl. 8: blue nose [...] an aristocratic, upper society member.
1970		‘Red’ Rudensky Gonif 138: A shrewd, intelligent con who could write, talk, and make it with the blue noses.

6. attrib. use of sense 4.

1997

Mad mag. July 44: When some blue nose morons call my show obscene they’re dead wrong.

7. (Scot.) a slur used by Roman Catholics for Presbyterians or in Glaswegian football (trad. RC) Celtic supporters for those of (trad. Presbyt.) Rangers .

1999		P. Foy in Burgess & O’Rourke New Writing Scotland 17 48: [H]e looks a bit uneasy fur a minute an asks if A took it but A reassure him that A'm a blue-nose and he looks relieved.
2004		Dly Star 10 Sept. 8: Apparently the Gers' bad start to the season has made their fans sick. Literally. Boffins have been looking at Old Firm fans' health and discovered that Bluenoses are really suffering.
2023		A. Parks To Die in June 104: Kent must have come just to see her – can’t think of any other reason for a bluenose like him to be at Mass’.