different between blend vs intersperse

English

Etymology

From Middle English blenden, either from Old English blandan, blondan, ?eblandan, ?eblendan or from Old Norse blanda (“to blend, mix”) (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 *blandan? (“to blend; mix; combine”). Compare Middle Dutch blanden (“to mix”), Gothic ???????????????????????????? (blandan), Old Church Slavonic ?????? (blesti, “to go astray”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: bl?nd, IPA^(key): /bl?nd/
• Rhymes: -?nd
• Homophone: blende

Noun

blend (plural blends)

1. A mixture of two or more things.

   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.

   The word brunch is a blend of the words breakfast and lunch.

Synonyms

• (mixture): combination, mix, mixture
• (in linguistics): frankenword, portmanteau, portmanteau word

Translations

Verb

blend (third-person singular simple present blends, present participle blending, simple past and past participle blended or (poetic) blent)

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

2. (intransitive) To be mingled or mixed.

   • 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
3. (obsolete) To pollute by mixture or association; to spoil or corrupt; to blot; to stain.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:blend.

Synonyms

• (to mix; to unite intimately): See also Thesaurus:homogenize, Thesaurus:mix, and Thesaurus:coalesce

Derived terms

• blender
• blended
• blend in
• blendingly

Translations

References

Anagrams

• L-bend

Central Franconian

Alternative forms

• blenk (Ripuarian; now chiefly western dialects)
• blond, blönd (Eifel)

Etymology

From Old High German blind, northern variant of blint.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /blent/

Adjective

blend (masculine blenne or blende, feminine blenn or blend, comparative blenner or blender, superlative et blendste)

1. (Moselle Franconian, some dialects of Ripuarian) blind; unable to see

Usage notes

• The inflected forms with -nn- are used in those dialects in which blend is the inherited form (Moselle Franconian, southern Ripuarian). The forms with -nd- are used in Ripuarian to the extent to which inherited blenk has been replaced with blend.

Dutch

Verb

blend

1. first-person singular present indicative of blenden
2. imperative of blenden

English

Etymology

From Latin intersperg?, interspersus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?nt?(?)?sp??(?)s/

Verb

intersperse (third-person singular simple present intersperses, present participle interspersing, simple past and past participle interspersed)

1. To mix two things irregularly, placing things of one kind among things of other:
   • 1991, Frank Biocca, Television and Political Advertising: Signs, codes, and images, page 76:

     For example, a commercial sequence might intersperse pictures of a senator working in his office with shots of ordinary Americans happily working in various walks of life.

2. (transitive) To scatter or insert something into or among other things.
   • 1985, Jane Y. Murdock, Barbara V. Hartmann, Communication and language intervention program (CLIP) for individuals with moderate to severe handicaps, page 46:

     Review tasks are particularly useful to intersperse when students are experiencing considerable failure.
3. (transitive) To diversify by placing or inserting other things among something.

   Mother Nature interspersed the petunias with a few dandelions, but it was a pretty garden, anyway.

Related terms

• interspersed
• interspersion

Translations

References

• intersperse in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• intersperse in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• enterprises, entreprises, serpentries