black
The darkest colour, the opposite of white; the colour of coal or a starless night.
Etymology
From Old English blæc (black, dark), from Proto-Germanic *blakaz, likely from PIE *bʰleg- (to shine, to burn, to flash). Paradoxically, the word for 'black' comes from a root meaning 'to burn' — the connection is through charring and soot, where burning produces blackness. This is related to but distinct from Old English blāc (pale, shining), which caused confusion in Middle English. Latin flagrāre (to burn) is a cognate of the PIE root.
The Journey: *bʰleg- → black
*bʰleg-
*blakaz
blæc
black
Cognates Across Languages
These words in other languages descend from the same PIE root *bʰleg-. They are not borrowings but independent inheritances from a common ancestor.
| Language | Word |
|---|---|
| Dutch | blaken — to burn |
| Greek | phlegein (φλέγειν) — to burn |
| Latin | flagrāre — to burn, blaze |
| Old Norse | blakkr — dark |
Did You Know?
Black comes from a word meaning 'to burn' — the colour of charred wood. Its PIE cousin gave Greek phlegma (inflammation) and the River Phlegethon, the river of fire in the Greek underworld. Darkness named after fire is a beautiful contradiction.
This word descends from the Proto-Indo-European root *bʰleg-. See the full root page for descendant trees, sound law references, and scholarly discussion.