blindness

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English blindnesse,^[2] inherited from Old English blindnes, also blindnysse,^[3][2] formed from Old English blind + -nes.^[2][4][5] The OED compares Middle Low German blintnisse.^[4] Old English blind is probably from Proto-Germanic *blindaz,^[2] which Etymonline connects, with some hesitation, with Proto-Indo-European *bhel- (“to shine, flash, burn”), through the notion of making cloudy or deceiving.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Inability to see: in the Old English Hexateuch, at Deuteronomy 28:28,^[4] where blindnysse renders Latin cæcitate.^[3] The figurative sense was also already Old English: it is in the Blickling Homilies,^[4][2] and the Gospel of Mark speaks of the blindnesse of their hearts.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Sight and understanding shared the word from the start, as they did in the adjective blind,^[2][4] and Bosworth–Toller's material also has the inability to see in darkness.^[3] In Middle English, Chaucer used it for blindness and obtuseness.^[6] Johnson (1755) gave the same two senses, "want of sight" and "ignorance; intellectual darkness".^[7] An isolated sense of concealment is in Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors (before 1616).^[4] It was used from 1848 for the failure of a plant to flower or fruit.^[4] From 1878 medicine used it after a distinguishing word for neurological conditions that affect recognition, originally after German Wortblindheit (see word blindness).^[4] Merriam-Webster adds a specific measure, less than a tenth of normal vision in the better eye with lenses.^[5]

Timeline

• Old English – inability to see.^[4][3]
• Old English – lack of understanding or judgement.^[4][2]
• before 1616 – concealment (obsolete, once only).^[4]
• 1848 – failure of a plant to flower or fruit.^[4]
• 1878 – in medicine, with a qualifying word, a neurological inability to recognize something.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The state of being unable to see, or of having badly impaired eyesight; specifically, having less than a tenth of normal vision in the better eye with correction.^[5][4][7]
2. Lack of understanding, perception or judgement, often toward one thing: her blindness to his faults.^[5][4][7]
3. (medicine) With a qualifying word, a neurological inability to recognize or understand something seen, as in word blindness.^[4][5]
4. Failure of a plant to produce flowers, fruit or seed.^[4]

Word family

• color blindness
• day blindness
• moon blindness
• night blindness
• river blindness
• snow blindness
• word blindness

Related words

• blind
• -ness

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
7. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.