Meaning

noun a strong flame that burns brightly

noun a cause of difficulty and suffering

noun noisy and unrestrained mischief

origin] A 1639 borrowing, perhaps from Dutch bles or Middle Low German blesse, bles, ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *blasī, from Proto-Germanic *blasį̄, from *blasaz (“white, pale (of animals)”) + *-į̄ (forming nouns), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“shiny, white”). Cognate with German Blesse, Swedish bläs. The verb is from the noun.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0