Bill, I've come to this rather late, and what I find in OED is rather unhelpful as to etymology: f. blowze [Of unknown origin: cf. various Du. and LG. words with the sense of ‘red’ or ‘flushed’ under blush; but some of the uses appear to be influenced by blow] blush: [Evidently related to a series of words found in Old Norse and Low German, but not known in OHG. or Gothic, pointing back to a stem *blHsi- from verbal root *blHs- in sense of ‘burn, glow, be red’. Cf. OE. *blysian in ablisian to blush, ablysung, ablys¼ung ‘redness of confusion, shame’, with MDu. blZzen, blözen (from earlier bleuzen), Du. blozen to blush, blos (formerly bleus) blush, MLG. blosen, bloschen; also OE. blysa wk. masc., blysi¼e wk. fem., ON. blys neut. ‘torch’ (Sw. bloss torch, blossa to blaze, Da. blus torch, blusse to blaze, to blush), LG. blüse flame, blüsen to set on fire, bleusteren to inflame, glow, become red. The nearest relatives of ME. blusche, blosche, blysche, are app. MLG. bloschen, LG. blüsken (Brem. Wb. I. 105): and its antecedent form is perhaps to be found in OE. blyscan, bliscan ‘rutilare’ (in the Aldhelm Glosses, Mone Q. und F. 355): but its comparatively late appearance in ME., apparently first in the north, its various vowel-forms, and the doubtful relations of the senses, esp. sense 2, all combine to leave the history of the word very obscure. OE. blyscan, bliscan, has also been conjectured to be for *blicsian, from root *blik- to shine, in which case it would not be related to the blHsi- words, nor to ME. blusche. (The Da. deponent blues to blush, may also be compared.)] all of which boils down to what you found.