Blob Is a Word With No Clear Ancestry
A blob is a shapeless drop or mass. Unusually for English, nobody knows where the word came from.
A blob is a drop or shapeless mass of something soft. Its origin is genuinely unknown: it appears in the 1400s meaning a bubble or blister and has no clear parent in any other language. Most short English words can be traced to Old English, Norse or French; this one simply appears. Computing later borrowed it as a technical term for a binary large object, a chunk of data whose contents the database does not interpret.
- A shapeless mass. *A blob of paint.*
- A drop. *A blob of ink.*
- A vague shape. *A blob on the horizon.*
- A binary large object. *Store it as a blob.*
- Origin unknown. *From the 1400s.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | blob | A blob. |
| Plural | blobs | Blobs. |
| Verb | blob | Blobbed. |
| Adjective | blobby | Blobby. |
| Computing | BLOB | A blob field. |
- A blob of jam fell on the table.Drop.
- Just a blob on the radar.Shape.
- The image is stored as a blob.Computing.
Words of unknown origin
- Blob — a bubble or blister, from the 1400s
- Dog — replaced the older hound, source unknown
- Bad — no convincing ancestor
- Big — appears in the 1300s from nowhere
- Boy — much argued over, never settled
Origin unknown, recorded from the 1400s meaning a bubble or blister, probably imitative of something soft and rounded.
Where does blob come from?
Nobody knows. It appears in English in the 1400s with no traceable ancestor, which is unusual even for short common words.
What is a blob in computing?
A binary large object, a block of data such as an image or file stored without the database interpreting its contents.