Etymograph

English

inblow

Inblow comes from Old English inblāwan ‘to inspire, breathe upon, inflate, puff up’, from blāwan ‘to blow’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₁-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰleh₁-1‘to swell, blow up’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*blēaną1‘to blow’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*blāan1‘to blow’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150blāwan2‘to blow’
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150inblāwan3‘to inspire, breathe upon, inflate, puff up’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500inblowen3
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1949inblow3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Old English blawan
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Old English inblawan
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English inblow
  4. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1949, Institution of Mining Engineers: “During the full gasification stage, after piercing has been…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰleh₁-Wiktionary, Old English blawan‘to swell, blow up’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*blēanąWiktionary, Old English blawan‘to blow’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*blāanWiktionary, Old English blawan‘to blow’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150blāwanWiktionary, Old English inblawan‘to blow’
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150inblāwanWiktionary, English inblow‘to inspire, breathe upon, inflate, puff up’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500inblowenWiktionary, English inblow
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1949inblowWiktionary, English inblow. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1949, Institution of Mining Engineers: “During the full gasification stage, after piercing has been…”

Formed from in- + blow

Proto-Indo-European *h₁én ‘in’

Proto-Germanic *in ‘into’

English in-

Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- ‘to blow’

…

Proto-Germanic *blēaną ‘to blow’

Proto-West Germanic *blāan ‘to blow’

Old English blāwan ‘to blow, breathe’

Middle English blowen ‘to blow’

English blow

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₁- ‘to swell, blow up’

blast, flavor, inflation, flux, fluent, bliss, bladder, confluence, fluency, feeble, inflate, flatulence, fluvial, conflate, blithely, blare, blather, bleat, 43 more

through Proto-Germanic *blēaną ‘to blow’

blowing, 3 more

through Old English blāwan ‘to blow’

blown, 3 more

Today it means

verb To blow into; puff up; inflate.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “inblow”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Old English blawan, Old English inblawan. 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-Indo-European *bʰleh₁- / inblow

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