Blanche

See also: blanche

Translingual

Proper noun

Blanche

1. A botanical plant name author abbreviation for botanist Emanuel Blanche (1824-1908).

English

Alternative forms

• Blanch

Etymology

From Old French blanc (“white”). The surname originated as a nickname, or as a matronymic.

Proper noun

Blanche

1. A female given name from French.
2. A surname from French.

Quotations

• 1605, William Camden, Remains Concerning Britain, John Russell Smith (1870), page 55:

  But the Ambassadours enquiring each of their names, took offence at Urraca, and made choice of the Lady Blanche, saying, That her name would be better received in France than the other, as signifying fair and beautiful, according to the verse made in her honour,
  "Candida, candescens candore, & cordis & oris."

• 1878, Margaret Laurence Jones, Every Day: A Story, Remington and co., pages 61–62:

  Dorothy averred that Miss Potter was the second person with so little taste, as to appropriate the royal name of Blanche to a waiting-maid. An acquaintance, having a housemaid, whose full name was Catherine Blanche, always addressed her by her surname, Blanche, considering Catherine too romantic a name for a servant.

• 1994, Barbara Neely, Blanche Among the Talented Tenth, St Martin's Press, →ISBN, page 27:

  "To the irony of the person who named you — although you must catch hell, Blanche White." Blanche couldn't remember the last time anyone had spoken to her directly about the contrast between her color and her name.

Related terms

• Bianca

Translations

female given name

• Catalan: Blanca (ca)
• Cherokee: Ꮖ̃ᎴᏅᏥ (quãlenvtsi)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 布蘭奇 / 布兰奇 f (Bùlánqí)

• Czech: Blanka (cs), Bianka, Běla (cs)
• Dutch: Blanca (nl)
• French: Blanche (fr)
• Galician: Branca (gl)
• German: Bianka, Blanka
• Hungarian: Bianka (hu)
• Inuktitut: ᑉᓛᓐᑦᔅ (plaants)
• Italian: Bianca (it)
• Latin: Blanca
• Polish: Blanka (pl) f
• Portuguese: Branca f
• Romanian: Blanca, Bianca
• Russian: Бланка (Blanka)
• Slovak: Blanka, Bianka
• Slovene: Blanka
• Spanish: Blanca (es)
• Swahili: Blanchi
• Swedish: Blanka

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /blɑ̃ʃ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Proper noun

Blanche f

1. a female given name

Noun

Blanche f (plural Blanches)

1. female equivalent of Blanc

Further reading

• “Blanche”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.