▪ I. blae, a. (n.) Obs. exc. Sc. and north. dial.
(bleː, blɪə, bliː)
Forms: 3–5 bla, blaa, 3 bloa, 3–6 blo, 4 blowe, 4–6 bloo, 5 bloe, 6– blae, (dial. 7 bley, 9 blay, bleea, 7– blea).
[ME. blo, bloo, in north. dial. bla, blaa, a. ON. blá (sing. masc. blár) dark blue, livid (Sw. blå, Da. blaa blue), cogn. w. OHG. blâo:—*blâw (MHG. blâ, blâwer, mod.G. blau), MLG. blâ(w, OFris. blâw, blâu (MDu. blâ, blâu, Du. blaauw), OE. (rare) bláw (or blǽw, whence blǽwen:—bláwin):—OTeut. *blæ̂wo-z blue. The German blâw was adopted in Romanic (med.L. blāvus, OSp. blavo, Pr. blau, blava, F. bleu), whence it also passed into Eng. in the form blew, now blue, with the sense ‘cæruleus,’ while bla, blo retained the ONorse sense ‘lividus.’ The midland and southern Eng. form was blo, bloe, which survived till the 16th c.; but the word is now only northern Eng. and Sc. in the forms blae, blea, bleae, bley, blay. (These dialects have also blue in its ordinary sense, distinct from blae.)]
A. adj.
1. Of a dark colour between black and blue; blackish blue; of the colour of the blae-berry (Vaccinium Myrtillus); livid; also, of a lighter shade, bluish grey, lead-coloured. (Sometimes perh., in early writers, simply = Blue.)
| c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 637 Rein-bowe, men cleped reed and blo. 1330 R. Brunne Chron. 173 Þe sailes..som were blak & blo, Som were rede & grene. c 1375 ? Barbour St. Justine 733 Blac pic gert & brynstane bla. c 1384 Chaucer H. Fame 1647 Suche a smoke gan out wende..Blak bloo [v.r. blo] grenyssh swart rede. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 40 Bloo, coloure, lividus, luridus. c 1460 Towneley Myst. 224 My barne..Bete as blo as lede. 1513 Douglas æneis vii. xiv. 10 That wondrus monstre, wyth wyd chaftis bla. 1565 Golding Ovid's Met. iii. (1593) 56 Licking with his blo And blasting toong their sorie wounds. 1641 Best Farm. Bks. 99 It is usually a blea, flinty, wheate..the meale of it is of a darkish, bley, and flinty colour. 1781 J. Hutton Tour to Caves Gloss. (E.D.S.), Blea, a lead colour. 1796 J. Marshall Yorksh. (ed. 2) II. 65 The blue, blow, or lead-coloured flax—provincially, ‘blea-line.’ 1833 Smuggler 34 Knee-breeches and blay-thread stockings. 1875 Robinson Whitby Gloss. s.v. Bleea, As bleea as a whetstone. [Hence, the names of the Blea or Blae Tarns, in Langdale, Eskdale, and Borrowdale, of Blea Water in Mardale, and the Bleas by Ullswater, in the Lake district.] |
b. esp. Applied to the complexion or colour of the human body, as affected by cold, or contusion: Livid. Hence black and blae, now altered to black and blue: see black a. 13.
| ? a 1200 Leges Quat. Burgorum (Acts Parl. Sc. I.) Si quis verberando fecerit aliquem blaa et blodi [cf. transl. 1609]. c 1300 in Wright Lyric P. xxix. 86 Ant thi bodi colde, thi ble waxeth blo. a 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 5260 Alle bla and blody als he þan was, When he deyhed for mans trespas. a 1400 Isumbras 311 Made his flesche fulle blaa! c 1430 Hymns to Virg. (1867) 10 Hise sidis bloo and blodi were. a 1529 Skelton Prayers Wks. I. 140 Thy body wan & blo. 1609 Skene Reg. Maj. 130 Gif ane man strikes ane other, and makes him blae and bloudie. 1709 M. Bruce Soul-Conf. 11 (Jam.) You will stand with a blae countenance before the tribunal of God. 1785 Burns Twa Herds xii, Aft ha'e made us black and blae, Wi' vengefu' paws. Mod. Sc. Blae wi' cauld. |
Hence † blae-making.
| 1538 Aberd. Reg. V. 16 (Jam.) Conwict [= convicted] for the blud drawing, blamaking & strublens. |
c. Applied to the colour of the sea.
| c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. C. 134 Blowes boþe at my bode vpon blo watteres. c 1400 Emare 318 in Ritson Metr. Rom. II, The water so blo. 1503 Hawes Examp. Virt. x. 180 Ner lettynge of this water blo. |
2. Of the weather: Bleak, sunless. [From the prevailing colour of the landscape.]
| 1513 Douglas æneis vii. Prol. 130 The mornyng bla, wan, and har. 1789 Burns Ep. J. Tennant 3 This blae eastlin wind. 1818 Edin. Mag. 503 (Jam.) It was in a cauld blae hairst day. 1821 Clare Vill. Minstr. II. 119 Though floods of winter bustling fall Adown the arches bleak and blea. |
† 3. Dark, black: only in the early comb. blamon, bloman ‘a blackamoor’ [ON. blámaðr].
† 4. Tawny. Obs. rare.
| a 1400 Gloss. in Rel. Ant. I. 8 Fulvus, bloo. |
5. Dingy-coloured, ‘grey’, as opposed to white; unbleached. [So OSp. blavo, though = F. bleu, meant ‘yellowish grey.’] Usu. in form blay a.
B. n. A bluish grey indurated clay occurring in thin slaty strata.
| [c 1440 Promp. Parv. 40 Blo erþe, argilla.] 1724 Fraser in State 345 (Jam.) The mettals I discovered were a coarse free stone and blaes. 1757 Phil. Trans. L. 145 Another mineral that the miners call blaes is a cliffery stratum of a blueish colour. ? 1811 Statist. Acc. Hebrides 149 (Jam.) Blae (which is a kind of soft slate). |
▪ II. blae
Sc. form of blea v. to bleat.