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Bis

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Bla

mance. The Lat.-Rom. origin is indeed supported by the initial b as well as the loss of the original e at the beginning; comp. Ital. vescovo, OFr. vesque (also evesque, ModFr. évêque, and OIr. epscop). Comp. further OSlov. jepĭskopŭ.

Bissen, m., ‘bit, morsel,’ from the equiv. MidHG. biȥȥe, OHG. biȥȥo; comp. AS. bita, E. bit, and beißen.

Bistum, n., ‘bishopric.’ Even in MidHG. bischtuom and bistuom, OHG. biscetuom, from biscoftuom. By a similar change Bismarck was formed from bischoves marc; on the borders of such a mark the property of the tribe was situated.

Biß, Bißchen, ‘bit, trifle,’ from beißen.

bitten, vb., ‘to beg, entreat, invite,’ from the equiv. MidHG. and OHG. bitten (from bitjan, bidjan); it is a str. vb. of the class e—a—â—e. Comp. Goth. bidjan, baþ, bêdum, bidans; AS. biddan; in E. to bid, both bieten and bitten appear; E. to beg, from AS. bedecian (Goth. *bidaqôn? comp. Teut. and Goth. *bidaqa, ‘beggar’). The str. vb. belonged originally to the i class (Goth. bidja, *baiþ, *bidum, bidans might therefore be conjectured); a trace of this gradation is shown further by the factitive Goth. baidjan, AS. bœ̂dan, OHG. beiten, with the meaning ‘to order, demand, compel.’ The root bheidh, bhidh, accords with Gr. πιθ (for φιθ, according to the well-known rule), πείθω, ‘to induce by entreaties, get by asking, persuade, convince’; to this belongs also Lat. fîdo (equiv. to the Gr. Mid. Voice πείθομαι), ‘to rely on a person.’ With this meaning an OTeut. bîdan, ‘to await, wait with full confidence’ (Goth. beidan, OHG. bîtan, AS. bîdan, E. to bide), has been connected. The Germ. noun Bitte is OHG. bita, most frequently bëta, Goth. bida. See beten, Gebet.

bitter, adj., ‘bitter,’ from the equiv. MidHG. bitter, OHG. bittar. This t, since it comes before r, represents the t common to the Teut. cognates; before r the permutation of t to ȥ, tz does not take place (comp. Eiter, lauter, zittern); OLG. bittar, AS. bittor, biter, E. and Du. bitter; hence we should have expected Goth. *bĭtrs, for which a form with a remarkable ái, baitrs, ‘bitter,’ occurs. The word is undoubtedly cognate with beißen (root bit, inf. bîtan); the adj. properly signifies ‘pricking, sharp,’ being now, like beißen, restricted to the taste. For other cognates comp. beißen.

blach, adj., ‘flat,’ from MidHG. blach;

it is, like Swiss blacke, ‘a large board,’ related to flach.

Blackfisch, m., ‘cuttlefish,’ from LG. blackfisk. Blak is the LG. term for ink (blakhorn, ‘inkstand’); comp. AS. blœc, ‘ink,’ E. black (a colour and shoemaker's black), OHG. blach.

Blahe, f., ‘coarse linen,’ from MidHG. balhe, blâ, f.; a dialect. widely diffused word, with the parallel forms blähe, plane, blache, plauwe; the primit. form is Goth. *blahwa?.

blähen, vb., ‘to inflate,’ from the equiv. MidHG. blœjen, OHG. blâjan, wk. vb. (the OHG. word also means ‘to blow’); comp. AS. blâwan, E. to blow. The Teut. root blâ (blê) agrees partly with Lat. flare (Aryan root bhlâ); blasen, Blatt, and Blatter are also closely related to it. Blasen especially seems to have arisen from the shorter root, also preserved in Blatter, by adding s to the stem of the present.

Blaker, m., ‘chandelier’ (in Voss), from the equiv. LG. and Du. blaker; comp. AS. blœcern; from the MidLG. and Du. blaken, ‘to burn, glow.’ For further Teut. and Aryan cognates see under Blitz.

blank, adj., ‘bright, drawn (of a sword),’ from the MidHG. blanc, OHG. blanch, ‘gleaming, white, resplendently beautiful.’ Comp. E. blank (‘white’), (AS. blanca, blonca, OIc. blakkr, ‘white or grey horse’); related to OIc. blakra, ‘to gleam’; formed by gradation from the root blek in Blitz (comp. also blecken). The adj. made its way into Rom. (Ital. bianco, Fr. blanc), whence Blankett with a Rom. suffix; comp. also blasen. The less frequent blink — a recent formation from the verb — is found as a parallel form to blank in ModHG.

Blankscheit, n., ‘busk’ (whalebone in a corset), corrupted in ModHG. from Fr. planchette.

Blase, f., ‘blister, bubble, flaw,’ from MidHG. blâse, OHG. blâsa; the last two specially mean ‘urinary bladder.’ Comp. Blatter and blasen.

blasen, vb., ‘to blow, sound, smelt,’ from MidHG. blâsen, OHG. blâsan, ‘to breathe, snort’; comp. tho equiv. Goth. blêsan; in E. only the deriv. AS. blœst, E. blast, has been preserved. The s of blasen, which does not occur in the root bhlê of the cognate languages, is considered by some to be simply a present suffix which was not joined to the stem until a later period; in that case blähen and Blatter may be cog-