n.
Cl pl. blomes, blomeʒ
'flower, bloom; perfection'
(Modern English bloom)Usually derived from ON (with the except of Goll, who cites only OE blōm), cp. either OIcel blómi (m.) or blóm n. ‘flower, flowing plant’ < PGmc *ƀlom- (cp. Go bloma, OFris blōma, OS blōmo, OHG bluomo), from the stem of the v. *blōan- (cp. OE blōwan ‘to bloom, blossom'; elsewhere wk., cp. OFris blōia, OS blōjan, OHG bluoen). Kroonen (alone) argues it is also possible to interpret this v. as a Verner variant (< *blōmman- < *blōzman-) of n. *blōsman- represented by OE blōs(t)ma ‘blossom’, MLG blōsem, MDu bloemsem. This common Gmc word for ‘flower’ apparently occurs in OE as blōma (m.) with the very different sense ‘lump of metal, mass’, presumably a metaphorical extension referring to the shape of a ‘bloom of iron’. The original sense does not survive, at least for the simplex, but the meaning of -blōma in the Christ-epithet goldblōma in the Blickling Homilies could be interpreted with either sense (DOE, BT).
PGmc Ancestor
*ƀlom-
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
blómi (m.), blóm (neut.) ‘flower, flowing plant’
(ONP blómi (sb.) (m.), blóm (sb.) (n.))
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
Far blómi, Icel blómi, Norw blome, Dan blomme, Sw blomma; Far blóma (f.), Icel blóm, Norw blom
OE Cognate
blōma ‘lump of metal, mass’; cp. goldblōma ?’golden mass’ or ‘marigold (i.e. Mary’s flower)’
Phonological and morphological markers
Summary category
C3ac
First attested in Orrm and then predominantly N/EM in ME before becoming widespread.
Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus
Pe 27, 578; Cl 1042, 1467