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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
I'm reading Dickens's Bleak House. It occurred to me that I had no idea of "bleak"s etymology.
bleak1
PRONUNCIATION: blk
ADJECTIVE: Inflected forms: bleak·er, bleak·est
1a. Gloomy and somber: “Life in the Aran Islands has always been bleak and difficult” (John Millington Synge). b. Providing no encouragement; depressing: a bleak prospect. 2. Cold and cutting; raw: bleak winds of the North Atlantic. 3. Exposed to the elements; unsheltered and barren: the bleak, treeless regions of the high Andes.
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English bleik, pale, from Old Norse bleikr, white. See bhel-1 in Appendix I.
OTHER FORMS: bleakly —ADVERB
bleakness —NOUN
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bleak