- blood
- O.E. blod, from P.Gmc. *blodam (cf. O.Fris. blod, O.N. bloš, M.Du. bloet, O.H.G. bluot, Ger. Blut, Goth. blož), from PIE *bhlo-to-, perhaps meaning "to swell, gush, spurt," or "that which bursts out" (cf. Goth. blož "blood," bloma "flower"), in which case it wo7uld be from suffixed form of *bhle-, extended form of *bhel- "to thrive, bloom" (see bole). There seems to have been an avoidance in Germanic, perhaps from taboo, of other PIE words for "blood," such as *esen- (cf. poetic Gk. ear, O.Latin aser, Skt. asrk, Hittite eshar); also *krew-, which seems to have had a sense of "blood outside the body, gore from a wound" (cf. L. cruour "blood from a wound," Gk. kreas "meat"), which came to mean simply "blood" in the Balto-Slavic group and some other languages. Inheritance and relationship senses (also found in L. sanguis, Gk. haima) emerged in English by mid-13c. As the seat of passions, it is recorded from c.1300. Slang meaning "hot spark, a man of fire" [Johnson] is from 1560s. Blood money is from 1530s.