An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language Part 81

_Ramsay._

2. Blunt, unfeeling; a secondary sense.

_Douglas._

3. Curt, rough, uncivil.

_Spalding._

4. Easily deceived.

_Gl. Surv. Nairn._

O. E. _blade_, silly, frivolous; or in the same sense in which we now speak of a blunt reason or excuse. Isl. _blaad-ur_, _blauth-ur_, _blaud_, soft. The word seems to be primarily applied to things which are softened by moisture. Mollis, limosus, maceratus. Hence used to signify what is feminine; as opposed to _huat-ar_, masculine. It also signifies, timid. _Bleyde_, softness, fear, shame; _hugbleith_, softness of mind; Germ. Su. G. _blode_, Belg. _blood_, mollis, timidus.

BLAIT-MOUIT, _adj._ Bashful, sheepish, q. ashamed to open one's mouth.

BLAITIE-b.u.m, s. Simpleton, stupid fellow.

_Lyndsay._

If this be the genuine orthography, perhaps from Teut. _blait_, vaniloquus; or rather, blait, sheepish, and _bomme_, tympanum. But it is generally written _Batie-b.u.m_, q. v.

BLAK _of the_ EIE, the apple of the eye, S.

_R. Bruce._

BLAN, _pret._ Caused to cease.

_Gawan and Gol._

It is undoubtedly the pret. of _blin_; A. S. _blan_, _blann_, cessavit.

BLANCHART, _adj._ White.

_Gawan and Gol._

Fr. _blanc_, _blanche_, id. The name _blanchards_ is given to a kind of linen cloth the yarn of which has been twice bleached, before it was put into the loom; perhaps immediately from Teut. _blancke_, id. and _aerd_, Belg. _aardt_, nature.

V. ~Art~.

BLANCIS, _s. pl._ Ornaments worn by those who represented Moors, in the Pageant exhibited at Edinburgh, A. 1590.

_Watson's Coll._

If not allied to Fr. _blanc_, white, it may be a cognate of Germ.

Su. G. _blaess_, Isl. _bles_, signum alb.u.m in fronte equi; whence E.

_blason_, S. _Bawsand_, q. v.

BLAND, _s._ Some honourable piece of dress worn by knights and men of rank.

_Maitland Poems._

_Blanda_, according to Bullet, is a robe adorned with purple, a robe worn by grandees. Su. G. _blyant_, _bliant_, a kind of precious garment among the ancients, which seems to have been of silk.

_To_ BLAND, _v. a._ To mix, to blend.

_Douglas._

Su. G. Isl. _bland-a_, to mix.

BLANDED BEAR, barley and common bear mixed, S.

_Statist. Acc._

From Su. G. _bland-a_ is formed _blan-saed_, meslin or mixed corn.

BLAND, _s._ A drink used in the Shetland Islands.

_Brand._

Isl. _blanda_, cinnus, mixtura, pro potu, aqua mixto; Su. G. _bland_ dicebatur mel aqua permixtum.

_To_ BLANDER, _v. a._

1. To babble, to diffuse any report, such especially as tends to injure the character of another, S.

2. Sometimes used to denote the want of regard to truth in narration; a thing very common with tattlers, S. B.

Perhaps from Isl. _bland-a_, Dan. _bland-er_, to mingle, as denoting the blending of truth with falsehood.

BLANDIT, _part. pa._ Flattered, soothed.

_Dunbar._

Fr. _blander_, to soothe, Lat. _blandiri_.