Etymology
Usually regarded as continuing PGmc
*ƀlēstaz (or
*ƀlēstuz), which is represented by OE
blǣst ‘gust of wind’ and (perhaps) ‘flame, blaze’ (mainly in poetry; see
DOE), OIcel
blástr ‘blast of wind, blowing; breathing, puffing, snorting; flatulence, swelling, inflammation’ and OHG
plāst ‘breath’; the n. is a derivation on the PGmc st. v.
*ƀlēsan- ‘to blow’ (cp. OIcel
blása, Go
uf-blēsan, MLG
blasen, OHG
blāsan). ME spellings in <a> are viewed sometimes unproblematically as the reflex of OE
blǣst (thus
OED,
MED, TGD GDS, and Hug (374-5, 385-6)), but Bj. points out that the shortening of PGmc ‘long e 1’ should have produced late OE /e/ rather than /æ/ in Angl. areas. There is nonetheless some room for hesitation over treating ME <a> in this word as a formal test of loan: there are exceptions, albeit rare ones, to the rule that shortening of Angl. OE /e:/ always gives <e> in ME, and the total absence of ME forms in <o> means that it is not possible definitively to demonstrate the reflex of ON /ɑ:/. Influence is sometimes adduced from related words to account for regular ME /a/ in blaste: e.g. the v. OE
blāwan ‘to blow, breathe’ (thus Sweet 1874/1888: 180). or more plausibly OE poetic <blæst> ‘flame, blaze’, sometimes explained as etymologically distinct from
blǣst ‘gust of wind’ and as containing OE /æ/ < PGmc /a/ (thus Seebold who moreover cites OHG
ana-blast ‘onslaught, attack’ and
blestan ‘fall on’ as cognate, and only tentatively connects these forms with the
*ƀlēs- root). If two originally separate words, OE blæst and blǣst, did indeed exist, they could have become associated relatively early, leading to a variant OE
blæst ‘gust of wind’ with short /æ/.
PGmc Ancestor
*ƀlēstaz or *ƀlēstuz
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
blástr ‘blast of wind, blowing; breathing, puffing, snorting; flatulence, swelling, inflammation’
(ONP blástr (sb.))
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
Far blástur, Icel blástur, Norw blåster, blæster, Dan blæst, OSw blāster, blæster, Sw bläster
OE Cognate
blǣst ‘gust of wind’
Phonological and morphological markers
[ON /ɑ:/ < PGmc */e:/ (1)]
(possibly diagnostic)
Summary category
C2