Etymology: < blend v.²

Etymology: Past participle of blend v.²

Etymology: Common West Germanic: Old English blęndan = Old Frisian blenda , Old Saxon *blendan (Middle Dutch blenden ), Old High German blentan (Middle High German, modern German blenden ) < Germanic type *blandjan ‘to make blind,’ a factitive verb apparently formed with ablaut upon the adjective blind- , since no trace is found of a strong verb blindan . See blind v. (The past tense blent coincided with that of blench ; whence some confusion in sense 1b.)

Etymology: Middle English blend-en weak verb, appears c1300, at first in northern writers. Evidently akin to bland n.¹ mixture, and the Old English strong verb bland-an , Old Norse blanda (Swedish blanda , Danish blande ) to mix: see bland v.¹ But the Middle English verb (however the change of vowel may be explained) can hardly have been a continuation of the Old English blandan , since this was all but obsolete already in Old English, while blenden was a common word from the 14th cent. More probably the latter was an adoption of the Old Norse blanda (which though originally strong, had subsequently weak inflections); the change of vowel may also have been due to the Old Norse singular present blend , blendr : whether any association with blend v.¹ (with which it entirely coincides in forms) or other extraneous influence contributed, does not appear. But later identification with blend v.¹ is shown by the occasional use of blynde for this verb also. The 16th cent. blenne was either phonetic, like the converse len, lend, or deduced from the past participle blend.