To make something white or pale; an archaic or obsolete term for bleaching or whitening something.
From the prefix 'em-' (cause to be) combined with 'blanch,' derived from Old French 'blanc' meaning white. Over time this word fell out of common use as 'bleach' became the standard term.
Emblanch is a beautiful ghost of a word—it tells us that 'blanch' itself means 'to whiten,' which is why we 'blanch' vegetables (turning them white by dunking in boiling water) or 'blanch' at bad news (our faces turn white). But emblanch became obsolete, replaced by simpler terms.
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