blazer

What it means

1. A thing which blazes or shines brightly.
   1. informalA very bright or hot day.

      The day comes—a blazer, cloudless blue, not a breath stirring the pine-branches; […]

      1875, [Mary Elizabeth Braddon], chapter III, in Hostages to Fortune […], volume I, London: John Maxwell and Co. […], →OCLC, page 88

   2. CanadaUScookingA dish used to cook directly over the coals of a brazier, or the flame of a chafing dish lamp.

      1 more example

      [I]t was evident to him that Mrs. Nichols in branching out did not intend to banish the Welsh rarebit, the oysters in cream, and other delicacies which Tom prided himself on being able to prepare on a blazer so skilfully that the mouths of his friends never ceased to water until the alcohol-lamp went hopelessly out.

      1895, Robert Grant, “By Hook or Crook. Chapter I.”, in The Bachelor’s Christmas and Other Stories, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 260

   3. Northern EnglandA flat metal piece placed against a fire grate to cause the fire to blaze by creating a draught; a blower.

      From the neighbouring colleries the miners had come in crowds—men, women, and children. The women and children were many of them armed with "blazers" and tin-cans, which they used as cymbals, to the accompaniment of groans, yells, and howls directed against the motley gang of evictors.

      a. 1923 (date written), Thomas Burt, Aaron Watson, “The Last Strike on the Old Pattern”, in Thomas Burt […]: An Autobiography […], London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin […], published 1924, →OCLC, page 177

In a sentence

The day comes—a blazer, cloudless blue, not a breath stirring the pine-branches; […]

1875, [Mary Elizabeth Braddon], chapter III, in Hostages to Fortune […], volume I, London: John Maxwell and Co. […], →OCLC, page 88

Where it comes from

1. Proto-Indo-European*bʰel-“to blaze, burn; to be bright, shine; bright flame, fire; shiny; white”
2. Proto-Germanic*blasǭ“a torch”
3. Proto-West Germanic*blasā“a flame, blaze; a firebrand, torch”
4. Old Englishblæse
5. Middle Englishblase“a flame, blaze; a firebrand, torch; a bright light”
6. Englishblazer

From blaze (“to reflect or send forth a bright light; (figurative) to be conspicuous; etc.”, verb) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns). Blaze is derived from blaze (“fire”, noun), from Middle English blase (“a flame, blaze; a firebrand, torch; a bright light”), from Old English blæse, blase (“a flame, blaze; a firebrand, torch”) (whence Old English blæsere, blasere (“one who burns, burner, incendiary”, literally “blazer”)), from Proto-West Germanic *blasā (“a flame, blaze; a firebrand, torch”), from Proto-Germanic *blasǭ (“a torch”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to blaze, burn; to be bright, shine; bright flame, fire; shiny; white”).