blate

See also: blátě

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bleɪt/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪt

Etymology 1

From Scots blate (“timid, sheepish”), apparently a conflation of

• Northern *Middle English blate, *blait (“pale, ghastly, terrified”), from Old English blāt (“pale, livid, ghastly”), from Proto-West Germanic *blait (“pale, discoloured”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleyd- (“pale, pallid”) and
• Middle English bleth, bleath (“timid, soft”), from Old English blēaþ (“gentle, shy, cowardly, timid; slothful, inactive, effeminate”), from Proto-Germanic *blauþuz (“weak, timid, void, naked”).

Cognate with German blassen (“to make pale”), bleich (“pale, pallid”). More at bleak, bleach.

Adjective

blate (comparative blater, superlative blatest)

1. (Scotland, Northern England) Bashful, sheepish.
   • 1934, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Grey Granite (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 491:

     You'd say Not them; fine legs, and Ma struggling into her blouse would say You're no blate. Who told you they're fine?

2. (Scotland, Northern England) Dull, stupid.

Etymology 2

Verb

blate (third-person singular simple present blates, present participle blating, simple past and past participle blated)

1. Archaic form of bleat.
   • 1851, William Maxwell, The Virginia Historical Register, and Literary Note Book:

     Away they fly, like a party of Indians after buffaloes; while along the road, it may be, cattle are bellowing, sheep blating, dogs barking, hens cackling, and crows cawing.

Anagrams

• ablet, bleat, table

Dutch

Verb

blate

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

Anagrams

• tabel

Scots

Etymology

Uncertain; perhaps from Old English blāt (“pale”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [blet], [blit]

Adjective

blate (comparative blater, superlative blatest)

1. shy, modest, timid, sheepish
   • 1786, Robert Burns, A Bard's Epitaph:

     Is there a whim-inspired fool, / Owre fast for thought, owre hot for rule, / Owre blate to seek, owre proud to snool, / Let him draw near / And owre this grassy heap sing dool, / And drap a tear.

     Is there a whim-inspired fool, / Too fast for thought, too hot for rule, / Too shy to seek, too proud to submit, / Let him draw near / And over this grassy heap make lament, / And drop a tear.

2. stupid, easily deceived, dull, unpromising