Etymograph

English

blain

Blain comes from Old English bleġen ‘blain, blister, cyst’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *blajinǭ.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*blajinǭ1reconstructed
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150bleġen1‘blain, blister, cyst’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500blein1
  4. Englishtodayblain1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English blain

Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*blajinǭWiktionary, English blainreconstructed
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150bleġenWiktionary, English blain‘blain, blister, cyst’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500bleinWiktionary, English blain
  4. EnglishtodayblainWiktionary, English blain

The story

Related also to dialectal Norwegian bleime (‘blister’), Old Swedish blēma (‘blister’), French bleime (‘an inflammation of a horse's hoof’).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- ‘to swell up’

ball, bowl, bell, bull, bold, bald, boil, flame, bale, blizzard, bolster, blush, bleach, budge, blur, sabha, blaze, blemish, phlegm, phallus, bolero, phlox, bola, blithe, bleat, 72 more

Today it means

noun skin swelling or sore; blister; blotch.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “blain”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *blajinǭ / blain

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