In a Word: That Blazer Is Fire!

Senior managing editor and logophile Andy Hollandbeck reveals the sometimes surprising roots of common English words and phrases. Remember: Etymology tells us where a word comes from, but not what it means today.

It has been said that English can be a difficult language to learn if it isn’t spoke at home, in large part because it’s so often inconsistent. Even native English speakers complain about how illogical it can be. If infants are babies, for example, why do we have infantry in the Army? If octo- indicates “eight” — as in octopus and octagon — why is October the tenth month? And why do we call mixed drinks cocktails when they contain neither tails nor … well, you get the picture.

You can imagine, then, the confusion that might arise when a student of English learns that blaze is another word for a “fire” or “flame” but then hears about stylish men and women going in public wearing blazers. Is being on fire in fashion now?

These English oddities always result from centuries of language change, and often from blurred lines between concrete and metaphorical uses of words. Blazer is no different.

The word blaze has been part of the language all the way back to Old English (blæse). Then, as now, it meant “flame” or “bright fire.” That “bright” part is meaningful here — taking the word’s history back even further, the word stems from a Proto-Germanic root that meant “white” or “shining.”

Fast-forward to more modern times (linguistically), and that sense of white or shining is still in use. As far back as the 17th century, in a northern English dialect, blaze was what people called a light spot on the face of a horse, cow, or other farm animal. From this sense, and not much later, it applied to white marks left on a tree to mark one’s progress through an unknown area — normally, by cutting off some bark to expose the white wood underneath. This is what is meant be “blazing a trail.”

So blaze had a long history relating not just to flame but to things being bright, and being noticeable or notable because of that brightness. And that’s how we get to a nice, fashionable blazer:

In 1825, the first college boating team in Cambridge was formed at St. John’s College. The Lady Margaret Boat Club — named for the group’s benefactress — began wearing loose-fitting jackets made from a bright red fabric. Though they were primarily intended to keep the rowers warm during morning practices and competitions, they also served as a uniform that allowed spectators to identify the team from a distance. Because they were bright and stood out, they were said to “blaze.” After a few decades, the jackets themselves came to be known as blazers.

Those jackets caught on — both in style and vibrancy (or garishness) — with other rowing teams. Those teams were relatively small, making membership somewhat prestigious, and so rowers wore their blazers around campus as status symbols, similar to letter jackets today. Soon, students both on and off the boating teams were sporting them.

And from those on-campus beginnings, the blazer, you might say, set the fashion world ablaze.