blate
/bleɪt/ adjective
Also a form of bleat
Forms blater blatest blates blating blated
- adjective (Scotland, Northern England) Bashful, sheepish.
- adjective (Scotland, Northern England) Dull, stupid.
Synonyms
Etymology
Borrowed from Scots blate (“timid, sheepish”), apparently a conflation of:
* Northern Middle English *blate, *blait (“pale, ghastly, terrified”), from Old English blāt (“pale, livid, ghastly”), from Proto-West Germanic *blait (“pale, discoloured”), from Proto-Germanic *blaitaz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleyd- (“pale, pallid”);
* Middle English bleth, bleath (“timid, soft”), from Old English blēaþ (“gentle, shy, cowardly, timid; slothful, inactive, effeminate”), from Proto-Germanic *blauþuz (“weak, timid, void, naked”).
Cognate with German blassen (“to make pale”), bleich (“pale, pallid”). More at bleak, bleach.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “blate”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details