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blare

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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WOTD – 19 July 2023

Etymology

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The verb is derived from Late Middle English blaren, bleren, bloren (“to bellow, cry, wail; of a goat: to bleat”), probably from Old English *blǣren,[1] from Middle Dutch blaren, bleren (“to bawl, cry; to shout; to bleat”) (modern Dutch blèren), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₁- (“to bleat, cry”) and ultimately imitative.[2]

The noun is derived from the verb.[3]

cognates

Pronunciation

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Verb

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blare (third-person singular simple present blares, present participle blaring, simple past and past participle blared)

  1. (transitive)
    1. Often followed by out: of a device such as a loudspeaker or a radio: to produce (music, a sound, etc.) loudly and piercingly.
      • 2014, Nick Arnold, “Body Breakdowns and Recovery”, in Horrible Science: Body Owner’s Handbook, revised edition, London: Scholastic Children’s Books, →ISBN, page 159:
        In 2000, a robber held up a bank in San Diego, USA. It seems everyone held their noses rather than sticking their hands up because the man was so smelly! […] Police helicopters blared loudspeaker warnings about the smelly man.
    2. (figuratively) To express (ideas, words, etc.) loudly; to proclaim.
  2. (intransitive)
    1. To make a loud sound, especially like a trumpet.
      The trumpet blaring in my ears gave me a headache.
    2. (archaic except British, dialectal) To make a lengthy sound, as of a person crying or an animal bellowing or roaring.
      • 1535 October 14 (Gregorian calendar), Myles Coverdale, transl., Biblia: The Byble, […] (Coverdale Bible), [Cologne or Marburg]: [Eucharius Cervicornus and Johannes Soter?], →OCLC, I. Kynges [1 Samuel] vj:[12], folio xxviij, recto, column 2:
        And the kyne wente ſtraight waye vnto Beth Semes vpon one ſtreete, and wente on blearynge, and turned nether to the righte hande ner to the lefte.
      • 1535 October 14 (Gregorian calendar), Myles Coverdale, transl., Biblia: The Byble, […] (Coverdale Bible), [Cologne or Marburg]: [Eucharius Cervicornus and Johannes Soter?], →OCLC, Esay [Isaiah] xv:[4–5], folio vi, verso, column 2:
        The worthies alſo of Moab bleared and cried for very ſorow of their myndes: Wo is my hert for Moabs ſake.
      • 1791, Homer, “[The Odyssey.] Book X.”, in W[illiam] Cowper, transl., The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, Translated into Blank Verse, […], volume II, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC, page 236, lines 496–500:
        Behold, at eve, the herd returning home / From fruitful meads vvhere they have grazed their fill, / No longer in the ſtalls contain'd, they ruſh / VVith many a friſk abroad, and, blaring oft, / VVith one conſent all dance their dams around, […]

Derived terms

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Translations

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See also

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  • (to emit loud shouts or songs): belt (verb), belt out (verb)

Noun

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blare (countable and uncountable, plural blares)

  1. A loud sound.
    I can hardly hear you over the blare of the radio.
    • 1852, Alfred Tennyson, “Stanza VI”, in Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 10:
      [T]heir host of eagles flew / Past the Pyrenean pines, / Follow'd up in valley and glen / With blare of bugle, clamour of men, / Roll of cannon and clash of arms, / And England pouring on her foes.
    • 1922 October, Michael Arlen, “Book the Second: The Friends. Chapter II.”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days, London, Glasgow: W[illiam] Collins Sons & Co., […], published August 1924, →OCLC, section 1, page 84:
      They danced on silently, softly. Their feet played tricks to the beat of the tireless measure, that exquisitely asinine blare which is England's punishment for having lost America.
    • 1924 May 24 – July 12, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “Judson Finds an Old Friend”, in Bill the Conqueror: His Invasion of England in the Springtime, 10th edition, London: Methuen & Co. […], published 1931, →OCLC, page 242:
      The blare of the music and the restlessness of the chorus afflicted his nerves.
    • 1936, F[rederick] J[oseph] Thwaites, chapter XXII, in The Redemption, Sydney, N.S.W.: H. John Edwards Publishing, published 1940, →OCLC, page 214:
      The screeching of brakes, the monotonous blare of motor horns, the clip-clip of shoes on slippery pavements, the rustling of wet mackintoshes were all part of the great metropolis.
  2. (figuratively) Of colour, light, or some other quality: dazzling, often garish, brilliance.
    • 1837, Thomas Carlyle, “The Book of the Law”, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume II (The Constitution), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, book V (Parliament First), page 209:
      Archivist Camus, an Old-Constituent appointed Archivist, he and the Ancient Twelve, amid blare of military pomp and clangour, enter, bearing the divine Book: and President and all Legislative Senators, laying their hand on the same, successively take the Oath, with cheers and heart-effusion, universal three-times-three.
    • 1880, Alfred Tennyson, “[Ballads and Other Poems.] The Voyage of Maeldune. (Founded on an Irish Legend. A.D. 700.)”, in Ballads and Other Poems, London: C[harles] Kegan Paul & Co., […], →OCLC, stanza VII, pages 148–149:
      And we came to the Isle of Fire: we were lured by the light from afar, / For the peak sent up one league of fire to the Northern Star; / Lured by the glare and the blare, but scarcely could stand upright, / For the whole isle shudder'd and shook like a man in a mortal affright; […]
  3. (obsolete except British, dialectal) A lengthy sound, as of a person crying or an animal bellowing or roaring.
    • 1861 September 28 – 1862 March 8, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter XLVII, in A Strange Story. […], volume II, London: Sampson Low, Son, & Co., […], published 1862, →OCLC, pages 369–370:
      The herds [of bison], in their flight from the burning pastures had rushed over the bed of the watercourse—scaled the slopes of the banks. […] One cry alone more wild than their own savage blare pierced the reek through which the Brute Hurricane swept.

Translations

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References

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  1. ^ “blēren, v.(2)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ Compare “blare, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2023; “blare, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  3. ^ “blare, n.1”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2023; “blare, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

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Afrikaans

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Noun

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blare

  1. plural of blaar

Dalmatian

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Verb

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blare

  1. Alternative form of vular

Dutch

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Verb

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blare

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