▪ I. † blik, blike, v. Obs.
In 1 bl{iacu}can; 3 blikien, blykyen, 4 bliken, blikken.
[Here there appear to be two or more cognate forms: (1) OE. bl{iacu}can to shine, gleam, a com. Teut. str. vb. = OS. blîkan (MDu. blîken, Du. blijken to look, appear), OHG. (in comp.) -blîhhan (MHG. blîchen, mod.G. -bleichen), ON. blîkja str. vb:—OTeut. *blîk-an ‘to shine, gleam,’ pointing to Aryan *bhlig-: cf. OSlav. bli-sk-at{supi} to sparkle, Gr. ϕλέγειν to burn, L. fulgēre to shine. (2) The cognate ON. blika (wk. v.) found beside the str. bl{iacu}kja to shine, glitter: cf. Sw. blicka, also MDu. and mod.G. blicken to glance, Du. blikken to twinkle, turn pale. The early ME. blikien points back to an OE. *blician wk. vb., answering to ON. blika.]
intr. To shine, glisten, glitter.
| a 1000 Sol. & Sat. 235 (Gr.) Ðu..ᵹesihst Hierusalem weallas blican. c 1205 Lay. 27360 Iseȝen..sceldes blikien. a 1225 St. Marher. 9 His lockkes ant his longe berd blikede al o gold. c 1300 Wright Lyric P. xvi. (1842) 52 Hire bleo blykyeth so bryht. c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. B. 603 Bryȝt blykked þe bem of þe brode heuen. 1340 Alex. & Dind. 411 Hur face to enoine, For to bliken of hur ble. |
▪ II. blik, n. Philos.
(blɪk)
[Arbitrary formation.
‘Some commentators on my ideas have tried to find a connexion with the German word Blick, and have attributed to me an intention to suggest something like ‘outlook’ or even ‘Weltanschaung’. But I had no such conscious intention, and was merely looking for a pronounceable monosyllable that had no meaning hitherto. I could as well have chosen ‘plik’, and perhaps it is a pity that I did not.’ (R. M. Hare, private letter to ed., 18 July 1985.).]
R. M. Hare's word for a behavioural or affective tendency which influences one's interpretation of experience, a personal slant (on something); a conviction, esp. a religious one.
| 1950 R. M. Hare in Flew & Macintyre New Ess. Philos. Theol. (1955) 100 Let us call that in which we differ from this lunatic, our respective bliks. He has an insane blik about dons; we have a sane one. 1972 D. A. Pailin in Cox & Dyson 20th-Cent. Mind III. iv. 135 Hare calls these structures ‘bliks’ and, probably unfortunately, describes them in terms of a lunatic's conviction that ‘all dons want to murder him’. 1976 J. Hick Death & Eternal Life 30 A ‘ptolemaic’ faith can have the triumphant invulnerability of what R. M. Hare has called a blik, a comprehensive interpretation which no evidence is allowed to threaten because it interprets all the evidence from its own standpoint. 1976 P. Donovan Religious Lang. iii. 25 R. M. Hare agreed with Flew that religious statements were factually empty as statements, but then offered an account of their meaningfulness as what he called bliks, i.e. as principles by which one lives and in accordance with which one interprets experience. Ibid. 28 There may be..factual assumptions behind the adoption of a blik, even though the blik itself is not an assertion of fact. 1976 Theology July 194 The possibility of varied interpretations..does not confer a licence on the theologian to adopt that kind of interpretation to which he is drawn by his particular blik on the New Testament. |