Borrowed from Provençal blanqueto, a diminutive of blanc (“white”), derived, through early Medieval Latin blancus, from Frankish *blank (“gleaming, white, blinding”), from Proto-Germanic *blankaz (“white, bright, blinding”), from Proto-Indo-European *bhleg- (“to shine”). Equivalent to blanc (“white”) + -ette (feminine diminutive suffix). Doublet of blanchette.