Meaning

noun the whiteness that results from removing the color from something

noun an agent that makes things white or colorless

noun the act of whitening something by bleaching it (exposing it to sunlight or using a chemical bleaching agent)

originFrom Middle English blechen, from Old English blǣċan (“to bleach, whiten”), from Proto-West Germanic *blaikijan, from Proto-Germanic *blaikijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to shine”). Cognate with Dutch bleken (“to bleach”), German bleichen (“to bleach”), Danish blege, Swedish bleka (“to bleach”). Related to Old English blāc (“pale”) (English blake; compare also bleak).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0