bland

• IPA^(key): /blænd/
• Rhymes: -ænd

• Audio (CA)

  (file)

Borrowed from Latin blandus (“pleasant, flattering”).

bland (comparative blander, superlative blandest)

1. Having a soothing effect; not irritating or stimulating.

   a bland oil

   a bland diet

2. Lacking in taste or flavor.

   The coffee was bland.

3. Lacking in vigor.
   • 2012, John Shepherd, David Horn, Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World

     First and foremost, alternative country artists generally claim to reject mainstream country music as musically indistinguishable from bland pop music, as lyrically superficial, and as having no artistic merit […]

4. (figurative) Lacking interest; boring; dull.
   • 1996, “Country House”, in The Great Escape, performed by Blur:

     He's reading Balzac and knocking back Prozac / It's a helping hand that makes you feel wonderfully bland

   bland comment

5. (now rare) Mild; soft, gentle, balmy; smooth in manner; suave.
   • 1818, John Keats, Sonnet:

     Where didst thou find, young Bard, thy sounding lyre? / Where the bland accent, and the tender tone?

   • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter IX, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 24962326:

     “A tight little craft,” was Austin’s invariable comment on the matron; […]. ¶ Near her wandered her husband, orientally bland, invariably affable, and from time to time squinting sideways, as usual, in the ever-renewed expectation that he might catch a glimpse of his stiff, retroussé moustache.

• (lacking in taste): tasteless, flat, wallow

• blanden
• blandness

From Middle English blanden, blonden, from Old English blandan (“to blend, mix, mingle; trouble, disturb, corrupt”), from Proto-Germanic *blandaną (“to mix, blend”). Cognate with Icelandic blanda, Norwegian, Danish blande, Swedish blanda. See also blend.

bland (third-person singular simple present blands, present participle blanding, simple past and past participle blanded)

1. (transitive, UK dialectal) To mix; blend; mingle.
2. (transitive, UK dialectal) To connect; associate.

From Middle English bland, from Old English bland, blond (“blending, mixture, confusion”), from Proto-Germanic *blandą (“a mixing, mixture”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰlendʰ- (“to grow turbid, dim, see badly, be blind”). Cognate with Icelandic blanda (“a mixture of liquids, especially of hot whey and water”).

• blaind, blaund (Scotland)

bland (countable and uncountable, plural blands)

1. (UK dialectal) Mixture; union.
2. A summer beverage prepared from the whey of churned milk, common among the inhabitants of the Shetland Islands.

   Hypernym: fermented milk product

   Coordinate terms: kefir, koumiss

• in bland

• bland in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

bland

1. imperative of blande

Borrowed from Latin blandus.

• Audio

  (file)

bland (strong nominative masculine singular blander, not comparable)

1. (medicine) bland

• “bland” in Duden online
• “bland” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

• IPA^(key): /plant/
• Rhymes: -ant

bland n (genitive singular blands, no plural)

1. mix

• bland í poka

• blanda

bland

1. imperative of blande

bland

1. imperative of blande

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• audio

  (file)

bland

1. among