From Middle English blenden, either from Old English blandan, blondan, ġeblandan, ġeblendan or from Old Norse blanda (which was originally a strong verb with the present-tense stem blend; compare blendingr ("a blending, a mixture; a half-breed")), whence also Danish blande, or from a blend of the Old English and Old Norse terms; both ultimately from Proto-Germanic *blandaną.

• enPR: blĕnd, IPA: /blɛnd/

blend (plural blends)

1. A mixture of two or more things.

   Synonyms: combination, mix, mixture

   Their music has been described as a blend of jazz and heavy metal.

   Our department has a good blend of experienced workers and young promise.

2. (linguistics) A word formed by combining two other words; a grammatical contamination, portmanteau word.

   Synonyms: frankenword, portmanteau, portmanteau word, portmantologism

   Meronym: splinter

• French: mélange
• German: Mischung
• Italian: miscela, combinazione, mix, amalgama
• Portuguese: mistura, mescla, combinação, amálgama
• Russian: смесь
• Spanish: mezcla

blend (blends, present participle blending; simple past and past participle blended)

1. (transitive) To mingle; to mix; to unite intimately; to pass or shade insensibly into each other.

   Synonyms: Thesaurus:homogenize, Thesaurus:mix, Thesaurus:coalesce

   To make hummus you need to blend chickpeas, olive oil, lemon juice and garlic.

2. (intransitive) To be mingled or mixed.
   • 1819 June 23 – 1820 September 13, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “(please specify the title)”, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., New York, N.Y.: […] C[ornelius] S. Van Winkle, […], →OCLC ↗:

     There is a tone of solemn and sacred feeling that blends with our conviviality.

   • 1817, John Keats, Happy is England!:

     To feel no other breezes than are blown / Through its tall woods with high romances blent

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 3, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC ↗:

     Sepia Delft tiles surrounded the fireplace, their crudely drawn Biblical scenes in faded cyclamen blending with the pinkish pine, while above them, instead of a mantelshelf, there was an archway high enough to form a balcony with slender balusters and a tapestry-hung wall behind.

3. (obsolete) To pollute by mixture or association; to spoil or corrupt; to blot; to stain.
   • 1595, Edmunde Spenser [i.e., Edmund Spenser], “[Amoretti.] Sonnet LXII”, in Amoretti and Epithalamion. […], London: […] [Peter Short] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC ↗:

     These stormes, which now his beauty blend,
     Shall turn to calmes.

• French: mélanger, mêler, mixer
• German: mischen, mixen, vermischen
• Italian: mescolare, amalgamare, rimestare, miscelare
• Portuguese: misturar
• Spanish: mezclar, combinar

• Portuguese: misturar-se