Blanch comes from Old French blanchir ('to make white'), from blanc ('white'), of Germanic origin (Frankish *blank 'shining, white'). The historical trail runs through blanchir in Old French and *blank in frk. Used as a verb, blanch now means "turn pale, or to whiten food by briefly scalding it", so the present definition can be read against the older forms and meanings. The same lexical family is also visible in derived forms such as blancher and blanching and related forms such as blank and blanket. The result is a borrowed or transmitted form whose modern spelling carries a compact record of its route into English.