blush

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English blusshen, also bluschen and blisshen,^[2][3] probably inherited from Old English blyscan (“to be red, shine”),^{[3][4][5][6][7]} which glosses Latin rutilō.^[3][8] Barnhart and the OED also point to an Old English *blysian, found in āblysian (“to blush”).^[9][10][5] These words are connected with blysa (“torch, flame”),^[9][2][11] and are related to Old Norse blys (“torch”), Middle Low German bloschen, Middle Dutch blōzen, Dutch blozen (“to blush”) and Danish blusse (“to blaze, blush”).^{[3][10][5][6]} Wiktionary suggests Proto-Germanic *bluskijaną or *blaskijaną,^[12] and Etymonline traces the family to Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to shine, flash, burn”),^[3] Barnhart to *bʰleu-s- (“to burn”).^[9] The OED calls the history very obscure, because the Middle English word appears late, first in the north, with several vowels and senses that are hard to connect.^[10] Ayto finds it tempting to compare blaze, but notes that no connection has been established.^[13] The noun is from the verb.^[10][3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a noun, a glance or look, about 1390, in Joseph of Arimathie;^[10] as a verb, to shine forth, about 1400, in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.^[10] Barnhart dates blissen, to glance or stare, to about 1350,^[9] and Etymonline gives the verb "to shine brightly; to look, gaze" from the late 14th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The oldest English senses were "to shine" and "to glance", both used mainly in alliterative poetry and obsolete by about 1540.^[10] The glance survives in the phrase at first blush, at first sight or impression.^[3][10][2] The sense of reddening in the face from shame or modesty is recorded about 1450 in the OED and about 1400 in Etymonline;^[10][3] the figurative "to be ashamed" followed in 1530, in Palsgrave.^[10] The noun meaning a reddening of the face appears in 1595, in Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 3, and "a rosy colour or glow", as of the dawn, from 1589.^[10][3][9] Weekley notes that the oldest Middle English sense was to shine forth or cast a glance.^[14] Blusher, one who blushes, dates from 1665, and as a cosmetic for the cheeks from 1965;^[9] Etymonline notes that blush for such a cosmetic is uncommon before the 1960s outside poetry.^[3] A blush wine, a pale pink wine made from red grapes, is recorded from 1979.^[10] The phrase blush like a black dog, meaning not to blush at all, was used from the 16th century.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1350 – blissen, to glance, stare.^[16][9]
• c. 1390 – noun, a glance, look.^[10]
• c. 1400 – to shine forth (obsolete by 1540).^[10]
• c. 1450 – to turn red in the face from shame or modesty.^[10]
• 1530 – to be ashamed.^[10]
• 1589 – a rosy colour or glow.^[10]
• 1595 – a reddening of the face, in Shakespeare.^[10][9]
• 1647 – to put to the blush.^[10]
• 1965 – blusher, a cosmetic.^[9]
• 1979 – a pale pink wine.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To become red in the face from embarrassment, shame or modesty: He blushed when the teacher read out his poem.^[17][2][10]
2. To feel ashamed or embarrassed: I blush to admit how long it took me.^[2][10]
3. To become or make rosy or reddish.^[17][10]

Noun

1. A sudden reddening of the face from embarrassment, shame or modesty.^[17][2][10]
2. A rosy glow or reddish tinge: the first blush of dawn.^[17][2][10]
3. at first blush: at first sight; on first impression.^[17][2][10]
4. A pale pink wine made from red grapes; a rosé.^[10]
5. A cloudy patch on the surface of newly applied gloss paint.^[17]

Word family

• blushful
• blushingly
• blushfully
• blushfulness
• blushless
• ablush
• blusher

Related words

• blaze

Usage notes

In northern English and Warwickshire dialect blush meant appearance or resemblance ("she had a blush of her mother"), and in Scotland and the far north of England a blister.^[18]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
8. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
13. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
16. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
17. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
18. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)