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   The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition.  2000.
 

Appendix I

Indo-European Roots
 
ENTRY:bhel-3
DEFINITION:To thrive, bloom. Possibly from bhel-2.
Derivatives include foliage, blossom, flora, bleed, bless, and blade.
   I. Suffixed o-grade form *bhol-yo-, leaf. 1. foil2, foliage, folio, folium; cinquefoil, defoliate, exfoliate, feuilleton, milfoil, perfoliate, portfolio, trefoil, from Latin folium, leaf. 2. –phyll, phyllo-, –phyllous; chervil, gillyflower, podophyllin, from Greek phullon, leaf.
   II. Extended form *bhl- (< *bhle-). 1. O-grade form *bhl-. a. Suffixed form *bhl-w-. blow3, from Old English blwan, to flower, from Germanic *bl-w-; b. (i) bloom1, from Old Norse blm, blmi, flower, blossom; (ii) bloom2, from Old English blma, a hammered ingot of iron (semantic development obscure). Both (i) and (ii) from Germanic suffixed form *bl-mn-; c. blossom, from Old English blstm, blstma, flower, blossom, from Germanic suffixed form *bl-s-; d. ferret2, flora, Flora, floral, floret, floriated, florid, florin, florist, –florous, flour, flourish, flower; cauliflower, deflower, effloresce, enfleurage, florigen, millefleur, from Latin fls (stem flr-), flower, from Italic suffixed form *fl-s-; e. suffixed form *bhl-to-, possibly in the meaning “swell, gush, spurt” in Germanic *bldam, blood. (i) blood, from Old English bld, blood; (ii) bleed, from Old English *bldan, to bleed, from Germanic denominative *bldjan; (iii) bless, from Old English bloedsian, bltsian, to consecrate, from Germanic *bldisn, to treat or hallow with blood. 2. emblements, from Medieval Latin bldum, bladium, produce of the land, grain, from Germanic suffixed form *bl-da-. 3. Suffixed zero-grade form *bhl-to-. blade, from Old English blæd, leaf, blade, from Germanic *bladaz. (Pokorny 4. bhel- 122.)
 
 
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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