absurd English · revision 15191

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=1557|origins=la absurdus}}

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+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: UK /əbˈzɜːd/, /əbˈsɜːd/, US /əbˈsɝːd/^(Roach et al. 2011)

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+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|frm|absurde]], which goes back to [[fro|absorde]],^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)^(MWU 2024) from [[la|absurdus|t=out of tune, senseless]], from [[m|la|ab-|t=off, away]] and [[m|la|surdus|t=deaf, dull, mute]].^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)^(MWU 2024)^(NODE 1998) The prefix may here be an intensive,^(Etymonline)^(Collins 2023) and the second element is possibly from an imitative root meaning to buzz or whisper.^(Etymonline)

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+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Plainly illogical, contrary to reason, of things: 1557 in Barnhart and the OED, the 1550s in Etymonline.^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989)^(Etymonline)

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+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ One sense of the Latin word was “out of tune”, which led to the meaning “out of harmony with reason”;^(Cresswell 2021) English occasionally used absurd for inharmonious in music (1617, now obsolete).^(OED 1989)^(Cresswell 2021) It was applied to persons from 1597,^(OED 1989) and as a noun, an unreasonable thing, from 1610.^(OED 1989) ''The absurd'', the human condition in a meaningless universe in existentialist thought, translates French ''l'absurde'' as used by Albert Camus: 1954 in Barnhart, 1946 in Merriam-Webster.^(Barnhart 1988)^(MWU 2024) The ''Theatre of the Absurd'' describes drama by writers such as Samuel Beckett and Eugène Ionesco.^(Cresswell 2021) Absurdity is recorded probably from 1472.^(Barnhart 1988)

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+ ==Timeline==

+ * probably 1472 – absurdity.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1557 – absurd, illogical.^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989)

+ * 1597 – of persons.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1617 – out of tune (obsolete).^(OED 1989)

+ * 1946 – the absurd (philosophy).^(MWU 2024)

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+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Adjective===

+ # Ridiculously unreasonable or [[incongruous]]; [[ludicrous]].^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # ''(philosophy)'' Relating to the view that human life has no order or value in a meaningless universe.^(AHD)

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+ ===Noun===

+ # ''the absurd'' ''(philosophy)'': the condition of human beings in an [[irrational]], meaningless universe, especially in [[existentialism|alt=existentialist]] thought.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

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+ ==Word family==

+ * [[absurdity]]

+ * [[absurdly]]

+ * [[absurdness]]

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+ ==Related words==

+ * [[surd]]

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+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}