blaeadj.n.

Etymology: Middle English blo , bloo , in northern dialect bla , blaa , < Old Norse blá (singular masculine blár ) dark blue, livid (Swedish blå , Danish blaa blue), cognate with Old High German blâo < *blâw (Middle High German blâ , blâwer , modern German blau ), Middle Low German blâ(w , Old Frisian blâw , blâu (Middle Dutch blâ , blâu , Dutch blaauw ), Old English (rare) bláw (or blǽw , whence blǽwen < bláwin ) < Germanic *blæ̂wo-z blue. The German blâw was adopted in Romanic (medieval Latin blāvus , Old Spanish blavo , Provençal blau , blava , French bleu ), whence it also passed into English in the form blew , now blue n., with the sense ‘cæruleus,’ while bla, blo retained the Old Norse sense ‘lividus.’ The midland and southern English form was blo, bloe, which survived till the 16th cent.; but the word is now only northern English and Scots in the forms blae, blea, bleae, bley, blay. (These dialects have also blue in its ordinary sense, distinct fromblae.)