Etymology

cp. OIcel bleikr ‘pale, wan, ?bleached’ < the PGmc adj. *ƀlaika- (cp. OE blāc ‘bright, shining, glittering; pale, wan’, OS blēk, OHG bleih ‘yellowish, pale’), which is usually derived from the past tense stem of ƀlīk(j)an- ‘to shine’ (cp. OE blīcan, OFris blīka, OS blīkan, OHG bi-blīhhan, ON blíkja).

PGmc Ancestor

*ƀlaika-

Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)

bleikr ‘pale, wan, ?bleached’
(ONP bleikr (adj.))

Other Scandinavian Reflexes

Far bleikur, Icel bleikur, Norw bleik, Dan bleg, Sw blek, Shetl bleg

OE Cognate

blāc ‘bright, shining, glittering; pale, pallid, wan’

Phonological and morphological markers

ON /ei/ &lt; PGmc */ai/

Summary category

A1*

Attestation

MED cites a handful of attestations from (c1300) Havelok (LdMisc 108) onwards, with no evident dial bias, EDD cites usage in N dial of MnE.

Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus

Pe 27

MED cites the instance in Pe under its sense (b) ‘whitish, white’.

Bibliography

MED bleik (adj.)[ http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/m/mec/med-idx?type=id&id=MED5147&egs=all&egdisplay=open], OED blayk(e (adj.)[ http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/20002?isAdvanced=true&result=1&rskey=ILw6SL&], HTOED , EDD blake (adj.1), Bj. 41, de Vries bleikr, Mag. bleikur, Orel *ƀlaika-z, Kroonen *blaita