 |
| Michal Zebrowski in the film Army of Valhalla (2003) |
Where does the expression 'to blot out one's sins' come from?
The word 'blot' is probably Old Norse. Wiktionary invites us to imagine it's from *blettr, a word reconstructed from Icelandic blettur, meaning 'stain, blot, patch', but also 'a plot of land'.
One cannot help but wonder though if there isn't a more interesting etymology lurking just out of sight. The English word 'bless' after all originally mean 'to consecrate with blood'.
No comments:
Post a Comment