blasé

See also: blase, blasa, Blase, and blåse

English

WOTD – 5 September 2018

Alternative forms

• blase

Etymology

Borrowed from French blasé (“blasé, jaded”), past participle of blaser (“to blunt, dull”), from Middle Dutch blâsen (“to blow, sound, brag”), from Old Dutch *blāsan, from Proto-West Germanic *blāsan (“to blow”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₁- (“to blow; to bleat, cry”). Cognate with German blasen (“to blow”), English blast.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈblɑːzeɪ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /blɑˈzeɪ/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: (Received Pronunciation) -ɑːzeɪ, (General American) -eɪ
• Hyphenation: bla‧sé

Adjective

blasé (comparative more blasé, superlative most blasé)

1. Unimpressed with something because of over-familiarity.

   Synonyms: casual, indifferent, jaded, nonchalant, surfeited, unimpressed; see also Thesaurus:apathetic

   • 1847, Eugène Sue, “Lumineau”, in Martin the Foundling; or, The Memoirs of a Valet de Chambre, New York, N.Y.: William H. Colyer, […], →OCLC, page 21, column 1:

     "Are people who are blasé ever in love? Just see how badly you play your part!" said Madame Wilson, laughingly; […] "Let us now speak seriously, my dear Scipion; yes, I believe you to be blasé—but blasé as regards all false pleasures, all deceptive enjoyments. […]"

   • 1860 May, [David Masson], “Three Vices of Current Literature”, in David Masson, editor, Macmillan’s Magazine, volume II, number 7, Cambridge: Macmillan and Co. […], →OCLC, page 11, column 2:

     It is the habit of heartlessly pecking at these that shows a soul that is blasé. Of late, for example, it has been a fashion with a small minority of British writers to assert their culture by a very supercilious demeanour towards an idea which ought, beyond all others, to be sacred in this island—the idea of Liberty.

   • 1908, Edward Frederic Benson, “Chapter 1”, in The Climber, published 1912:

     "I thought the last act was rather dull," said Maud. "Then you're just as bad. You are blasée, darling: I think most people are blasés. That I can't understand. Nobody who has a plan should be blasé. And as long as one has any interest in life one has a plan. I have several."

   • 1913, G[eorge] R[obert] S[towe] Mead, “[Hans] Vaihinger’s Philosophy of the ‘As If’”, in Quests Old and New, London: G[eorge] Bell & Sons, Ltd., →OCLC, page 249:

     [A] blasé age like our own that is familiar with pragmatism and radical empiricism, that has survived the wild castigations of a Nietzsche in the domain of morals and is popularly pleased rather than otherwise with a Bergson's pillorying of the intellect on a charge of false pretences to the power of comprehending life, is incapable of such excitement.

   • 1951, J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC, pages 164–165:

     He was with some gorgeous blonde, and the two of them were trying to be very blasé and all, like as if he didn't even know people were looking at him. Modest as hell.

   • 1997, Joan German-Grapes, “The Elements of Job Success”, in The Teller’s Handbook: Everything a Teller Needs to Know to Succeed, 6th edition, New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill, →ISBN, part 1 (“Bankability” Basics—The Teller as a Person), page 10:

     Often, it's considered "cool" to be blasé about almost everything by some unfortunate people and very "square" to be enthusiastic, especially about something as basic as a job. Fortunately, successful people are too busy being enthusiastic about their work to pay any attention.

   • 2007, Chris Rojek, “Georg Simmel”, in Tim Edwards, editor, Cultural Theory, London, Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE Publications, →ISBN, page 44:

     The blasé personality develops such an acute consciousness of being assailed by form that it develops a defence mechanism of indifference. Nothing surprises or enchants it. It is not moved by tragedy or triumph, but maintains an even keel in the face of all new sensory data and information. The blasé personality is really a form of social retreatism, since it is predicated on disengaging with the variety and diversity of exchange and interaction.

Derived terms

• blasély
• blaséness

 

Translations

unimpressed with something because of over-familiarity

• French: blasé (fr)
• German: gleichgültig (de), gelangweilt (de)
• Italian: blasé m, disincantato (it) m, indifferente (it) m, scettico (it) m, disilluso (it) m
• Polish: zblazowany (pl)
• Portuguese: blasé (pt)
• Russian: пресы́щенный (ru) (presýščennyj), пресы́тившийся (ru) (presýtivšijsja)
• Serbo-Croatian: blaziran (sh)
• Turkish: usanmış, bezgin (tr)

Anagrams

• ables, Sabel, sable, Sable, albes, bales, Ables, Basel, beals, Basle, baels, saleb, Bleas, Sablé, labes

French

Etymology

Past participle of blaser, from Middle Dutch blâsen (“to blow, sound, brag”), from Old Dutch *blāsan, from Proto-West Germanic *blāsan (“to blow”). Cognate with German blasen (“to blow”), English blast.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bla.ze/ ~ /blɑ.ze/

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

blasé (feminine blasée, masculine plural blasés, feminine plural blasées)

1. blasé, jaded

Descendants

• → English: blasé
• → German: blasiert

Further reading

• “blasé”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• bêlas, sable, sablé

Italian

Adjective

blasé (invariable)

1. blasé

   Synonyms: disincantato, indifferente, scettico, disilluso

Anagrams

• blesa

Swedish

Adjective

blasé

1. blasé

   Synonym: blaserad

References

• blasé in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• blasé in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)