blet

English
WOTD – 4 September 2009

Etymology

Borrowed from French blettir, coined by John Lindley.[1]

Pronunciation
  • (UK, US) IPA(key): /blɛt/

Verb

blet (third-person singular simple present blets, present participle bletting, simple past and past participle bletted)

  1. To undergo bletting, a fermentation process in certain fruit beyond ripening.

Translations

See also

References
  1. John Lindley (1835) Introduction to Botany, page 296:
    After the period of ripeness, most fleshy fruits undergo a new kind of alteration; their flesh either rots or blets. […] May I be forgiven for coining a word to express that peculiar bruised appearance in some fruits, called blessi [sic] by the French, for which we have no equivalent English expression ?
    Emphasis and footnote in original, and though written as blessi, the French word for bletted is blette, and Lindley coined “blet”, suggesting an error in the text.

Anagrams

French

Pronunciation
  • Audio(file)

Adjective

blet (feminine singular blette, masculine plural blets, feminine plural blettes)

  1. overripe

Further reading

Old French

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Frankish *blād (“field produce”), from Proto-Germanic *blēdaz, *blēdō (“flower, leaf”), from Proto-Indo-European *bhlēdh-, *bhlōw-, *bhol- (“to flower; leaf”).

Noun

blet m (oblique plural blez or bletz, nominative singular blez or bletz, nominative plural blet)

  1. wheat

Descendants
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