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Webster 1913 Edition

Blet

Blet

,
Noun.
[F.
blet
,
blette
, a., soft from over ripeness.]
A form of decay in fruit which is overripe.

Definition 2024

blet

blet

English

Verb

blet ‎(third-person singular simple present blets, present participle bletting, simple past and past participle bletted)

  1. To undergo bletting, a fermentation process in certain fruit beyond ripening.

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Translations

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Anagrams

French

Adjective

blet m ‎(feminine singular blette, masculine plural blets, feminine plural blettes)

  1. overripe

Old French

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Frankish *blād ‎(“field produce”), from Proto-Germanic *blēdaz, *blēdō ‎(“flower, leaf”), from Proto-Indo-European *bhlēdh-, *bhlōw-, *bhol- ‎(“to flower; leaf”).

Noun

blet m ‎(oblique plural blez or bletz, nominative singular blez or bletz, nominative plural blet)

  1. wheat

Descendants

Etymology

French blettir.

Coined by John Lindley, in his Introduction to Botany (1835), p. 296:

“After the period of ripeness, most fleshy fruits undergo a new kind of alteration; their flesh either rots or blets.*
…
* May I be forgiven for coining a word to express that peculiar bruised appearance in some fruits, called blessi [sic] by the French, for which we have no equivalent English expression ?”

Emphasis and footnote in original, and though written as blessi, the French word for bletted is blette, and Lindley coined “blet”, suggesting an error in the text.

Pronunciation

  • (UK, US) IPA(key): /blɛt/

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