bloe

Forms

bloe m (feminine bloe)^[1]

• blo, bleu, blef, bleve, blou, blu, blau, bleue, blew, bliu, blief^[1][2][3]

Old French had the paired forms blef, feminine bleve, and blou, feminine bloue; the literary form continues the second pair.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin blāvus (“blue”),^[1] a Latin form first found in Isidore of Seville and in glosses of the 8th and 9th centuries.^[4][5] The Latin word is from Frankish *blāo (“blue”), according to the FEW, Gamillscheg and Bloch–Wartburg.^[6][4][3] The Frankish adjective continues Proto-Germanic *blēwa-, the source of Old Norse blár, Old English blāw, Old High German blāo and Dutch blauw.^[7] Orel relates it to Latin flāvus (“golden yellow”),^[8] and the DHLF also calls that connection probable.^[5] The word is only Gallo-Romance, with Old Occitan blau in Old Occitan.^[3]

Gamillscheg takes bloi, the adjective of the Roland, for a form made on the feminine bloue,^[4] while Wiktionary treats it separately as a colour word of uncertain shade, comparing blont.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Voyage de saint Brendan, Anglo-Norman of the first quarter of the 12th century, which has rocheit blef, a pale stone.^[9][10][11] The TLFi dates the poem about 1121 and gives the word there the sense "pale, whitish, livid".^[11]

Semantic evolution

The earliest records mean pale, wan or livid, and the sense blue follows: Tobler–Lommatzsch gives both "pale, sallow" and "blue",^[12] and the TLFi's first record of the sky colour is the Roman de Thèbes, about 1150: Sont de color vermeil et blef "they are red and blue in colour".^[11] In Chrétien de Troyes it is blue, of ensigns and silk, and of faces bruised by blows, perses et bloes.^[13] The livid sense lasted: a face bleve in 1226.^[11]

As a noun it named the colour from the end of the 12th century, Tote la char li revertist en blef "all his flesh turned blue", and blue cloth from 1254.^[11] Middle French and French kept French bleu.^[1][11]

Timeline

• 1100–1125 – blef in the Voyage de saint Brendan (about 1121 in the TLFi's dating).^[9][14][11]
• 1100–1133 – first Anglo-Norman record in the AND.^[2]
• c. 1150 – blef "sky blue" in the Roman de Thèbes.^[11]
• c. 1170 – bloe in Chrétien de Troyes's Erec et Enide.^[13][11]
• 1175–1200 – bleue in the Quatre Livres des Reis.^[15]
• 1180–1200 – the noun blef "blue colour" in the Mort Aymeri de Narbonne.^[11]
• 1226 – face bleve "livid face".^[11]
• 1254 – the noun for blue cloth.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. pale, wan, livid, discoloured.^[12][2][11]
2. blue, azure; blue-grey.^[13][2]
3. (Anglo-Norman) dark; stern, gloomy.^[2]

Noun

1. the colour blue.^[1][11]
2. blue cloth.^[2][11]

Anglo-Norman

The AND heads the word bleu, first cites it from the first third of the 12th century, and lists many spellings, among them blau, blef, bleif, blew, blief, bliu, bloe, blou, blu, blwe, bleive and bleve.^[2] Its insular senses run from livid and ashen through blue-grey and azure to dark and gloomy, and the noun means blue cloth.^[2] Middle English took the adjective as bleu, which the MED derives from bleu, blo and the feminines bleue and bloe;^[16] it became English blue, recorded from about 1300.^[17]

Descendants

• Middle French bleu (→ French bleu)^[1]
• Norman bliû^[1]
• Walloon bleu^[1]
• Bourguignon blieu^[1]
• Champenois bieu^[1]
• Middle English bleu (borrowed; → English blue)^[16][17]

Usage notes

Tobler–Lommatzsch and the DÉCT head the word blo, Godefroy's Complément, the AND and the DMF bleu, and the FEW files it under Frankish *blāo.^[13][2][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. bleu
3. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France, p. 114
4. ^ a b c d Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 132
5. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. bleu
6. ^ a b Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 15/1:146
7. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 68
8. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 49
9. ^ a b Baldinger, Kurt; Möhren, Frankwalt; Städtler, Thomas, eds. (1971–2021), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF), Heidelberg: Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften; DEAFél / DEAFpré, deaf-server.adw.uni-heidelberg.de, p. s.v. blo
10. ^ Möhren, Frankwalt, Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF): Complément bibliographique, electronic version (DEAFBiblEl), Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, alma.hadw-bw.de/deafbibl (texts by siglum, with their dates), p. BrendanW
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
12. ^ a b Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 1:1002
13. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire électronique de Chrétien de Troyes (DÉCT), LFA / Université d'Ottawa – ATILF, CNRS / Université de Lorraine (2014), p. s.v. blo
14. ^ Rainsford, Thomas, CorMétAF: lemmatised extracts of Old and Middle French verse and prose (990–1500), github (texts by siglum), p. BrendanS
15. ^ Stein, Achim; Kunstmann, Pierre; Gleßgen, Martin-D., eds., Nouveau Corpus d'Amsterdam, version 4 (lemmatised corpus of Old French texts, after A. Dees), Universität Stuttgart, github.com/michaniets/NCA (texts by DEAF siglum), p. Rois
16. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
17. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com