a. (sb.) Obs. exc. Sc. and north. dial. Forms: 3–5 bla, blaa, 3 bloa, 3–6 blo, 4 blowe, 4–6 bloo, 5 bloe, 6– blae, (dial. 7 bley, 9 blay, bleea, 7– blea). [ME. blo, bloo, in north. dial. bla, blaa, a. ON. blá (sing. masc. blár) dark blue, livid (Sw. blå, Da. blaa blue), cogn. w. OHG. blâo:—*blâw (MHG. blâ, blâwer, mod.G. blau), MLG. blâ(w, OFris. blâw, blâu (MDu. blâ, blâu, Du. blaauw), OE. (rare) bláw (or blǽw, whence blǽwen:—bláwin):—OTeut. *blǽwo-z blue. The German blâw was adopted in Romanic (med.L. blāvus, OSp. blavo, Pr. blau, blava, F. bleu), whence it also passed into Eng. in the form blew, now BLUE, with the sense ‘cæruleus,’ while bla, blo retained the ONorse sense ‘lividus.’ The midland and southern Eng. form was blo, bloe, which survived till the 16th c.; but the word is now only northern Eng. and Sc. in the forms blae, blea, bleae, bley, blay. (These dialects have also blue in its ordinary sense, distinct from blae.)]
A. adj. 1. Of a dark color between black and blue; blackish blue; of the color of the blae-berry (Vaccinium Myrtillus); livid; also, of a lighter shade, bluish grey, lead-colored. (Sometimes perh., in early writers, simply = Blue.)
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 637. Rein-bowe, men cleped reed and blo.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron., 173. Þe sailes … som were blak & blo, Som were rede & grene.
c. 1375. ? Barbour, St. Justine, 733. Blac pic gert & brynstane bla.
c. 1384. Chaucer, H. Fame, 1647. Suche a smoke gan out wende … Blak bloo [v.r. blo] grenyssh swart rede.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 40. Bloo, coloure, lividus, luridus.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst. 224. My barne … Bete as blo as lede.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, VII. xiv. 10. That wondrus monstre, wyth wyd chaftis bla.
1565. Golding, Ovid’s Met., III. (1593), 56. Licking with his blo And blasting toong their sorie wounds.
1641. Best, Farm. Bks., 99. It is usually a blea, flinty, wheate … the meale of it is of a darkish, bley, and flinty colour.
1781. J. Hutton, Tour to Caves, Gloss. (E. D. S.), Blea, a lead colour.
1796. J. Marshall, Yorksh. (ed. 2), II. 65. The blue, blow, or lead-coloured flax—provincially, ‘blea-line.’
1833. Smuggler, 34. Knee-breeches and blay-thread stockings.
1875. Robinson, Whitby Gloss., s.v. Bleea, As bleea as a whetstone. [Hence, the names of the Blea or Blae Tarns, in Langdale, Eskdale, and Borrowdale, of Blea Water in Mardale, and the Bleas by Ullswater, in the Lake district.]
b. esp. Applied to the complexion or color of the human body, as affected by cold, or contusion: Livid. Hence black and blae, now altered to black and blue: see BLACK a. 13.
a. 1200[?]. Leges Quat. Burgorum (Acts Parl. Sc. I.) Si quis verberando fecerit aliquem blaa et blodi [cf. transl. 1609].
c. 1300. in Wright, Lyric P., xxix. 86. Ant thi bodi colde, thi ble waxeth blo.
c. 1340. Hampole, Pr. Consc., 5260. Alle bla and blody als he þan was, When he deyhed for mans trespas.
a. 1400. Isumbras, 311. Made his flesche fulle blaa!
c. 1430. Hymns to Virg. (1867), 10. Hise sidis bloo and blodi were.
a. 1529. Skelton, Prayers, Wks. I. 140. Thy body wan & blo.
1609. Skene, Reg. Maj., 130. Gif ane man strikes ane other, and makes him blae and bloudie.
1709. M. Bruce, Soul-Conf., 11 (Jam.). You will stand with a blae countenance before the tribunal of God.
1785. Burns, Twa Herds, xii. Aft ha’e made us black and blae, Wi’ vengefu’ paws.
Mod. Sc. Blae wi’ cauld.
Hence † blae-making.
1538. Aberd. Reg., V. 16 (Jam.). Conwict [= convicted] for the blud drawing, blamaking & strublens.
c. Applied to the color of the sea.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., C. 134. Blowes boþe at my bode vpon blo watteres.
c. 1400. Emare, 318, in Ritson, Metr. Rom., II. The water so blo.
1503. Hawes, Examp. Virt., x. 180. Ner lettynge of this water blo.
2. Of the weather: Bleak, sunless. [From the prevailing color of the landscape.]
1513. Douglas, Æneis, VII. Prol. 130. The mornyng bla, wan, and har.
1789. Burns, Ep. J. Tennant, 3. This blae eastlin wind.
1818. Edin. Mag., 503 (Jam.). It was in a cauld blae hairst day.
1821. Clare, Vill. Minstr., II. 119. Though floods of winter bustling fall Adown the arches bleak and blea.
† 3. Dark, black: only in the early comb. blamon, BLOMAN ‘a blackamoor’ [ON. blámaðr].
† 4. Tawny. Obs. rare.
a. 1400. Gloss., in Rel. Ant., I. 8. Fulvus, bloo.
5. Dingy-colored, ‘grey,’ as opposed to white; unbleached. [So OSp. blavo, though = F. bleu, meant ‘yellowish grey.’]
1869. Dublin Gen. Advert., 24 Dec. Twilled and plain white calico sheets … blay ditto.
B. sb. A bluish grey indurated clay occurring in thin slaty strata.
[c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 40. Blo erþe, argilla.]
1734. Fraser, in State, 345 (Jam.). The mettals I discovered were a coarse free stone and blaes.
1757. Phil. Trans., L. 145. Another mineral that the miners call blaes is a cliffery stratum of a blueish colour.
1811[?]. Statist. Acc. Hebrides, 149 (Jam.). Blae (which is a kind of soft slate).
