English

black

/blæk/
Absorbing all light and reflecting none; dark and hueless.

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    Origin

    From Middle English blak, black, blake, from Old English blæc (“black, dark", also "ink”), from Proto-West Germanic *blak, from Proto-Germanic *blakaz (“burnt”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleg- (“to burn, shine”).

    See also Dutch blaken (“to burn”), Low German blak, black (“blackness, black paint, (black) ink”), Old High German blah (“black”); also compare Latin flagrāre (“to burn”), Ancient Greek φλόξ (phlóx, “flame”), Sanskrit भर्ग (bharga, “radiance”).

    Adjective sense 20 is a semantic loan from Cantonese 黑面 (hak1 min6, “to pull a long face, to scowl”).

    From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

    Lineage

    • inheritedMiddle Englishblak “black”
      • inheritedOld Englishblæc “black”
        • inheritedProto-West Germanic*blak
          • inheritedProto-Germanic*blakaz “burnt”
            • inheritedProto-Indo-European*bʰleg- “to burn, shine”

    Related: Dutch blaken, Low German blak, black, Old High German blah, Latin flagro, Ancient Greek φλόξ, Sanskrit भर्ग

    Sources