释义 |
▪ 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.)
c1250Gen. & Ex. 637 Rein-bowe, men cleped reed and blo. 1330R. Brunne Chron. 173 Þe sailes..som were blak & blo, Som were rede & grene. c1375? Barbour St. Justine 733 Blac pic gert & brynstane bla. c1384Chaucer H. Fame 1647 Suche a smoke gan out wende..Blak bloo [v.r. blo] grenyssh swart rede. c1440Promp. Parv. 40 Bloo, coloure, lividus, luridus. c1460Towneley Myst. 224 My barne..Bete as blo as lede. 1513Douglas æneis vii. xiv. 10 That wondrus monstre, wyth wyd chaftis bla. 1565Golding Ovid's Met. iii. (1593) 56 Licking with his blo And blasting toong their sorie wounds. 1641Best Farm. Bks. 99 It is usually a blea, flinty, wheate..the meale of it is of a darkish, bley, and flinty colour. 1781J. Hutton Tour to Caves Gloss. (E.D.S.), Blea, a lead colour. 1796J. Marshall Yorksh. (ed. 2) II. 65 The blue, blow, or lead-coloured flax—provincially, ‘blea-line.’ 1833Smuggler 34 Knee-breeches and blay-thread stockings. 1875Robinson 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.
a1200Leges Quat. Burgorum (Acts Parl. Sc. I.) Si quis verberando fecerit aliquem blaa et blodi [cf. transl. 1609]. c1300in Wright Lyric P. xxix. 86 Ant thi bodi colde, thi ble waxeth blo. a1340Hampole Pr. Consc. 5260 Alle bla and blody als he þan was, When he deyhed for mans trespas. a1400Isumbras 311 Made his flesche fulle blaa! c1430Hymns to Virg. (1867) 10 Hise sidis bloo and blodi were. a1529Skelton Prayers Wks. I. 140 Thy body wan & blo. 1609Skene Reg. Maj. 130 Gif ane man strikes ane other, and makes him blae and bloudie. 1709M. Bruce Soul-Conf. 11 (Jam.) You will stand with a blae countenance before the tribunal of God. 1785Burns Twa Herds xii, Aft ha'e made us black and blae, Wi' vengefu' paws. Mod. Sc. Blae wi' cauld. Hence † blae-making.
1538Aberd. Reg. V. 16 (Jam.) Conwict [= convicted] for the blud drawing, blamaking & strublens. c. Applied to the colour of the sea.
c1325E.E. Allit. P. C. 134 Blowes boþe at my bode vpon blo watteres. c1400Emare 318 in Ritson Metr. Rom. II, The water so blo. 1503Hawes Examp. Virt. x. 180 Ner lettynge of this water blo. 2. Of the weather: Bleak, sunless. [From the prevailing colour of the landscape.]
1513Douglas æneis vii. Prol. 130 The mornyng bla, wan, and har. 1789Burns Ep. J. Tennant 3 This blae eastlin wind. 1818Edin. Mag. 503 (Jam.) It was in a cauld blae hairst day. 1821Clare 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.
a1400Gloss. 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.
[c1440Promp. Parv. 40 Blo erþe, argilla.] 1724Fraser in State 345 (Jam.) The mettals I discovered were a coarse free stone and blaes. 1757Phil. Trans. L. 145 Another mineral that the miners call blaes is a cliffery stratum of a blueish colour. 1811Statist. Acc. Hebrides 149 (Jam.) Blae (which is a kind of soft slate). ▪ II. blae Sc. form of blea v. to bleat. |