Blanket
Middle English (denoting undyed woollen cloth): via Old Northern French from Old French blanc ‘white’, ultimately of Germanic origin.
wiktionary
From Middle English blanket, blonket, from Old Northern French blanket, blankete, blanquette (Modern French blanchet), diminutive of blanc(“white”). More at blank. Apparently cognate to blunket, plunket.
etymonline
blanket (n.)
c. 1300, "coarse white woolen stuff," also "a large oblong piece of woolen cloth used for warmth as a bed-covering" (also as a cover for horses), from Old French blanchet "light wool or flannel cloth; an article made of this material," diminutive of blanc "white" (see blank (adj.)), which had a secondary sense of "a white cloth."
As an adjective, "providing for a number of contingencies," 1886 (blanket-clause in a contract). Wet blanket (1830) is from the notion of a person who throws a damper on social situations in the way a wet blanket smothers a fire. In U.S. history, a blanket Indian (1859) was one using the traditional garment instead of wearing Western dress.
Only 26,000 blanket Indians are left in the United States. [Atlantic Monthly, March 1906]
blanket (v.)
c. 1600, "to cover with or as with a blanket;" also "to toss in a blanket" (as punishment), from blanket (n.). Related: Blanketed; blanketing.
