Wiktionary

blare

English edit

WOTD – 19 July 2023

Etymology edit

The verb is derived from Late Middle English blaren, bleren, bloren (“to bellow, cry, wail; of a goat: to bleat”), probably from Old English *blǣren,[1] from Middle Dutch blaren, bleren (“to bawl, cry; to shout; to bleat”) (modern Dutch blèren), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₁- (“to bleat, cry”) and ultimately imitative.[2]

The noun is derived from the verb.[3]

cognates

Pronunciation edit

Verb edit

blare (third-person singular simple present blares, present participle blaring, simple past and past participle blared)

  1. (transitive)
    1. Often followed by out: of a device such as a loudspeaker or a radio: to produce (music, a sound, etc.) loudly and piercingly.
      • 2014, Nick Arnold, “Body Breakdowns and Recovery”, in Horrible Science: Body Owner’s Handbook, revised edition, London: Scholastic Children’s Books, →ISBN, page 159:
        In 2000, a robber held up a bank in San Diego, USA. It seems everyone held their noses rather than sticking their hands up because the man was so smelly! […] Police helicopters blared loudspeaker warnings about the smelly man.
    2. (figuratively) To express (ideas, words, etc.) loudly; to proclaim.
  2. (intransitive)
    1. To make a loud sound, especially like a trumpet.
      The trumpet blaring in my ears gave me a headache.
    2. (archaic except British, dialectal) To make a lengthy sound, as of a person crying or an animal bellowing or roaring.
      • 1535 October 14 (Gregorian calendar), Myles Coverdale, transl., Biblia: The Byble, […] (Coverdale Bible), [Cologne or Marburg: Eucharius Cervicornus and J. Soter?], →OCLC, I. Kynges [1 Samuel] vj:[12], folio xxviij, recto, column 2:
        And the kyne wente ſtraight waye vnto Beth Semes vpon one ſtreete, and wente on blearynge, and turned nether to the righte hande ner to the lefte.
      • 1535 October 14 (Gregorian calendar), Myles Coverdale, transl., Biblia: The Byble, […] (Coverdale Bible), [Cologne or Marburg: Eucharius Cervicornus and J. Soter?], →OCLC, Esay [Isaiah] xv:[4–5], folio vi, verso, column 2:
        The worthies alſo of Moab bleared and cried for very ſorow of their myndes: Wo is my hert for Moabs ſake.
      • 1791, Homer, W[illiam] Cowper, transl., “[The Odyssey.] Book X.”, in The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, Translated into Blank Verse, […], volume II, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC, page 236, lines 496–500:
        Behold, at eve, the herd returning home / From fruitful meads vvhere they have grazed their fill, / No longer in the ſtalls contain'd, they ruſh / VVith many a friſk abroad, and, blaring oft, / VVith one conſent all dance their dams around, […]

Derived terms edit

Translations edit

to express (ideas, words, etc.) loudly — see proclaim

See also edit

  • (to emit loud shouts or songs): belt (verb), belt out (verb)

Noun edit

blare (countable and uncountable, plural blares)

  1. A loud sound.
    I can hardly hear you over the blare of the radio.
  2. (figuratively) Of colour, light, or some other quality: dazzling, often garish, brilliance.
    • 1837, Thomas Carlyle, “The Book of the Law”, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume II (The Constitution), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, book V (Parliament First), page 209:
      Archivist Camus, an Old-Constituent appointed Archivist, he and the Ancient Twelve, amid blare of military pomp and clangour, enter, bearing the divine Book: and President and all Legislative Senators, laying their hand on the same, successively take the Oath, with cheers and heart-effusion, universal three-times-three.
    • 1880, Alfred Tennyson, “[Ballads and Other Poems.] The Voyage of Maeldune. (Founded on an Irish Legend. A.D. 700.)”, in Ballads and Other Poems, London: C[harles] Kegan Paul & Co., […], →OCLC, stanza VII, pages 148–149:
      And we came to the Isle of Fire: we were lured by the light from afar, / For the peak sent up one league of fire to the Northern Star; / Lured by the glare and the blare, but scarcely could stand upright, / For the whole isle shudder'd and shook like a man in a mortal affright; […]
  3. (obsolete except British, dialectal) A lengthy sound, as of a person crying or an animal bellowing or roaring.
    • 1861 September 28 – 1862 March 8, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter XLVII, in A Strange Story. […], volume II, London: Sampson Low, Son, & Co., […], published 1862, →OCLC, pages 369–370:
      The herds [of bison], in their flight from the burning pastures had rushed over the bed of the watercourse—scaled the slopes of the banks. […] One cry alone more wild than their own savage blare pierced the reek through which the Brute Hurricane swept.

Translations edit

References edit

  1. ^ “blēren, v.(2)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ Compare “blare, v.”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2023; “blare, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  3. ^ “blare, n.1”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2023; “blare, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams edit

Afrikaans edit

Noun edit

blare

  1. plural of blaar

Dalmatian edit

Verb edit

blare

  1. Alternative form of vular

Dutch edit

Verb edit

blare

  1. (dated or formal) singular present subjunctive of blaren
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