blench

I'd never heard of this English word until I was looking up ustoupit in a Czech English online dictionary. It is one of the 41 equivalents offered by Metatrans. They are listed here on the right.

Click on this icon to open the picture fully. From this, you will be able to make the following observations.

The word occurs 18 times in the BNC, which has over 100 million words! Other words occurring with this frequency include trainspotter, creance, Goblander. The bracketted numbers on the right are BNC frequencies.

The concordance linked above shows all the word forms, not just 'blench'. And it indicates that it is mostly used in fiction. By looking at the subject of the 'blench' it is obviously some sort of gesture. And and a little bit more context suggests that it is one of surprise or shock, but not in life-threatening situations.

Can you glean anything else by looking at the contexts?

1. Is the word used in normal spoken English or academic writing?

2. What part of speech is it? Is it regular?

3. Do only people blench? Do ideas or feelings etc. blench?

4. In what sorts of situations do people blench?

5. What does the act of blenching involve?