From Middle English blak, blac, from Old English blāc ("pale, pallid, wan, livid; bright, shining, glittering, flashing") and Old Norse bleikr ("pale; yellow, pink; any non-red warm color"); both from Proto-Germanic *blaikaz ("pale; shining"). Compare Scots bleg ("light, drab"). More at bleak.
From the Middle English blaken, the northern reproduction (the form in the south was bloken) of the Old English blācian ("to become pale"), from blāc.
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