Other forms: blemishes
A blemish is a small mark that spoils the look of skin. A blemish on the cheek, cover a blemish, blemish-free.
In skincare it covers spots, marks and discolouration together, and it is the industry's polite general term. Of an object it means a flaw: a blemish in the paintwork. Figuratively it means a stain on a record — a career without a blemish. Note unblemished; and that the Old French behind it meant to make pale or bruise.
1nounblemishA small mark that spoils the look of skin.
“She used a little concealer to hide a blemish on her chin.”
2nounflawA flaw on a record or a surface.
“The one blemish on his school record was a warning for fighting.”
blemish is a small flaw.
Old French blemir meant to make pale or bruise, from a Frankish word. The sense of a mark came from the bruise it left.
Old French
blemir
Middle English
blemisshen
English, today
blemish
Built from
From Middle English blemisshen, blemissen, from Old French blemir, stem of Old French blemir, blesmir (“make pale, injure, wound, bruise”) (French blêmir), from Old Frankish blesmijan, blasmijan (“to make pale”), from Old Frankish blasmī (“pale”), from Proto-Germanic blasaz (“white, pale”), from Proto-Indo-European bʰel- (“to shine”). Cognate with Dutch bles (“white spot”), German blass (“pale”), Old English āblered (“bare, uncovered, bald, shaven”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA