† blo, a. Obs.
Also bloe, bloo, blow(e.
[The midland and southern form of the word still preserved in north.Eng. and Sc. as blae, blea:—ON. blá livid. Blo died out in literary Eng. during the 16th or 17th c.: for the etymology and senses, see blae.]
Blackish blue, livid, leaden-coloured. (In early writers sometimes = blue.)
| c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 637 Rein-bowe, men cleped reed and blo. c 1314 Guy Warw. (A.) 341 Tristor he hete wiþ þe berd blowe. c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. C. 221 In bluber of þe blo flod. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. iii. 97 Al to blo [C. iv. 125 blewe] askes. c 1430 Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1866) 206 Nowe ligiȝt he ded boþe blok and blo. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 40 Blo erþe, argilla. 1526 Skelton Magnyf. 2080, I wax bothe wanne and bloo. 1530 Palsgr. 306/2 Blo, blewe and grene coloured, as ones body is after a drie stroke. 1565 Golding Ovid's Met. iii. (1593) 56 Licking with his blo and blasting toong their sorie wounds. 1652 Ripley Comp. Alch. in Ashmole 188 The Crowys byll bloe as lede. 1788 W. Marshall Yorksh. (1796) II. 65 The blue, blow, or lead-coloured flax. |
Hence blo-wipe, a blow or stroke causing a bruise.
| 1622 R. Callis Stat. Sewers (1647) 169 If one be presented in a Leet Court for a Blowipe or any other personal wrong. |