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