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blake

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Blake and blakė

English

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Etymology

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From Middle English blak, blac (pale), from Old English blāc (pale, pallid, wan, livid; bright, shining, glittering, flashing) and Old Norse bleikr (pale; yellow, pink; any non-red warm color); both from Proto-Germanic *blaikaz (pale; shining). Compare Scots bleg (light, drab). More at bleak.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /bleɪk/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪk

Adjective

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blake (comparative blaker or more blake, superlative blakest or most blake) (UK dialectal, Northern England, poetic, uncommon)

  1. Yellow, as butter or cheese.
    • 1747, Josiah Relph, A Miscellany of Poems,: Consisting of Original Poems, Translations, Pastorals in the Cumberland Dialect, Familiar Epistles, Fables, Songs, and Epigrams, page 13:
      White shows the rye, the big of big of blaker hue, []
    • 1859, Hensleigh Wedgwood, A Dictionary of English Etymology: A - D, page 184:
      [] the E. blake (identical with AS. blac, G. bleich, pale) is provincially used in the sense of yellow. As blake as a paigle, as yellow as a cowslip.
    • 1876, Elizabeth Lynn Linton, Lizzie Lorton of Greyrigg: A Novel ..., page 271:
      Miss Lizzie's ower dark for my fancy. I mind nowt aboot your dark lasses - as blake as marygowds an' as black as corbies.
    • 1911, Richard Blakeborough, Wit, Character, Folklore & Customs of the North Riding of Yorkshire, page 340:
      Noo, that's a bit o' neyce blake butter. Thoo nobbut leeaks blakeish.

See also

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Anagrams

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Dutch

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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blake

  1. (dated or formal) singular present subjunctive of blaken

Anagrams

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German

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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blake

  1. inflection of blaken:
    1. first-person singular present
    2. first/third-person singular subjunctive I
    3. singular imperative

Middle English

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Etymology 1

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From Old English blāc (pale).

Adjective

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blake

  1. pale, pallid, yellowish
    • 1205, Lay, quoted in the NED:
      [1888] Whil heo weoren blake [] whil heo weoren ræde. [19890] Ænne stunde he wes blac [] while he wes reod.
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
    • 1400, St. Alexius (Cott.), 236:
      so was he lene and blake of hewe.
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
    • 1420, Anturs Arth. li: *: Thayre blees weren so blake. Alle blake was thayre blees.
    • 1430, Pallad. on Husb., I, 187:
      The vynes blake awaie thowe take, eke greene And tender vynes kytte.
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
    • 1530, Palsgr., 306: *: Blake, wan of colour.

Etymology 2

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Adjective

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blake

  1. Alternative form of blak

Etymology 3

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Verb

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blake

  1. Alternative form of bloken