Blare comes from Middle English bleren / Middle Dutch blaren ('to bleat, cry out'), of imitative origin. The historical trail runs through blaren in Middle Dutch. Its formation is sound-symbolic rather than a regular transparent compound, with the older form echoing the sound named in the history. Used as a verb and noun, blare now means "sound loudly and harshly; a loud raucous noise", 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 blaring. The result is a borrowed or transmitted form whose modern spelling carries a compact record of its route into English.