Etymologically
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blasé

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /bla.ze/[1]
  • IPA: /blɑ.ze/[1]

Forms

blasé (feminine blasée, masculine plural blasés, feminine plural blasées)[1]

Etymology

It is the past participle of blaser used as an adjective.[2][3][4][1] The verb (about 1650; 1608 in Régnier according to Bloch and Wartburg) is a Germanic word of the Picard area, compare Rouchi and Walloon “blasé” “pale or bloated from drink”.[4][5][6] Bloch and Wartburg take it from Middle Dutch blāsen (“to swell”), the first sense being “bloated with drink”, Rey doubts a Dutch borrowing, since modern Dutch blazen means only “to blow”, and finds a Provençal “blazir” “to wither”, from Frankish “*blâsjan” “to burn”, difficult in form and geography.[5][4] Wiktionary gives Middle Dutch “blâsen” “to blow, brag”, compare German blasen.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Trévoux (1743) records the adjective;[2] the verb first meant “to wear out with strong liquor”, a sense admitted by the Académie in 1740 and still in Saint-Simon.[4][5]

Semantic evolution

In 1762 the verb took its figurative sense, “to dull the senses by excess”, and the reflexive se blaser is in Sade (1785).[4][5] The adjective, more common than the verb, describes someone who thinks he has exhausted all experience and takes pleasure in nothing (blasé sur tout), and is used as a noun from 1817 (faire le blasé).[4][2][3] Blasement (1835) is literary and rare.[4]

Timeline

  • 1608 – Blaser in Régnier.[5]
  • 1740 – Blaser “to wear out with liquor” in the Académie.[4]
  • 1743 – Blasé in Trévoux.[2]
  • 1762 – The figurative sense.[4]
  • 1785 – Se blaser in Sade.[4]
  • 1817 – As a noun.[4]
  • 1835 – Blasement.[4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Blasé, jaded, indifferent: être blasé de tout.[3][1]

Noun

  1. A blasé person: faire le blasé.[3][2]

Word family

  • blaser
  • blasement
  • English blasé

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  3. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 15/1, 151a