Blasé

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Blasé

Postby Dr. Goodword » Wed Oct 15, 2014 8:47 pm

• blasé •

Pronunciation: blah-zayHear it!

Part of Speech: Adjective

Meaning: 1. Apathetic, detached because of luxury, surfeit, or excessive indulgence; sophisticatedly nonchalant, as to be blasé about gourmet food. 2. Lacking interest, apathetic, nonchalant, bored, as a blasé attitude toward housecleaning.

Notes: Today's Good Word is not to be pronounced as or confused with blaze. Blasé has not lost its feel of 'Frenchiness', as its pronunciation and the hat on the É tell us. So, we aren't allowed to make an adverb or a noun out of it. We will just have to develop a blazé attitude about their unavailability.

In Play: We can see blasé attitudes pretty much everywhere: "My grandchildren were born in the Internet age and are positively blasé about the Web." Even in the workplace: "The boss has become so blasé about laying people off that he does it by e-mail now."

Word History: Today's word is obviously French, the past participle of blaser "to cloy, to blunt (feelings)". It comes from a French dialect, where it meant "to be hung over". Blaser may well have come from Middle Dutch blasen "to blow up, swell". If so, it derives from the same Proto-Indo-European word that produced English blow, bladder, and blather, the latter probably from the sense of someone full of hot air. In Latin the initial B came to be F, so we know that all the Latin words that are derived from flare "to blow" are distant cousins. Borrowed English words based on this verb include flatulent, inflate, and soufflé, the noun of French souffler "to puff up", which comes from Latin sub "(from) under" + flare "to blow". (We cannot be blasé about thanking Tom Duffy for recommending today's lovely if adopted Good Word.)
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Slava
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Re: Blasé

Postby Slava » Wed Oct 15, 2014 10:20 pm

May I be the first to blaze the trail in saying that blasé is most definitely not a blasé word. Or, as my idiotic spell-check piece of blather prefers it, blase, whatever that might mean without the é.
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Re: Blasé

Postby Philip Hudson » Wed Oct 15, 2014 10:51 pm

Wow! Re: your "idiotic spell-check piece of blather". Spell check is bothersome but grammar check is even more so. And I am not blasé about either.
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Re: Blasé

Postby LukeJavan8 » Thu Oct 16, 2014 12:10 pm

After Thanksgiving dinner, after a surfeit of......
-----please, draw me a sheep-----

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Re: Blasé

Postby Philip Hudson » Fri Oct 17, 2014 12:11 am

Blaise Pascal is one of my heroes. I am proud of him because he took notes and did research on items of import, but never got around to publishing them. He left the "janitorial work" of organizing and publishing to his sister after his demise. Does that make Blaise blasé?
It is dark at night, but the Sun will come up and then we can see.

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Re: Blasé

Postby LukeJavan8 » Fri Oct 17, 2014 12:10 pm

:mrgreen:
-----please, draw me a sheep-----

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Re: Blasé

Postby Slava » Fri Oct 17, 2014 12:31 pm

As Blaise blazed a trail for others to follow, I'd be willing to say he was far from being blasé about the whole thing. I wonder what kind of suit coat he liked to wear. Perhaps a blazer?
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Re: Blasé

Postby Dr. Goodword » Sat Oct 18, 2014 12:35 am

I love this kind of wordplay repartee. Keep it coming! It's way past my bedtime or I would contribute.
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Re: Blasé

Postby Slava » Sat Oct 18, 2014 7:39 pm

Well, Agorans, are we up to the Dr.'s challenge? Who among us is willing to emblazon a new path for everyone to follow, looking for that glorious blaze of glory? Or have we fizzled out on this one and become duds? Is everyone here truly an old fart? (Look it up. :shock: :D) Can we really be SBDs? :lol:

Oh, by the way, I'd really, truly like to read what Dr. G. might have contributed. Hint, hint. :wink:
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

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Re: Blasé

Postby LukeJavan8 » Sat Oct 18, 2014 8:33 pm

SBD's ?
-----please, draw me a sheep-----

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Re: Blasé

Postby Perry Lassiter » Sun Oct 19, 2014 2:56 pm

Nah. We've all grown blasé about it.
pl

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Re: Blasé

Postby Slava » Sun Oct 19, 2014 4:04 pm

SBD's ?
"Silent But Deadly"
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Re: Blasé

Postby LukeJavan8 » Mon Oct 20, 2014 12:31 pm

Thanks - I don't text, hence don't speak the parlance
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Re: Blasé

Postby Slava » Mon Oct 20, 2014 2:30 pm

Me neither. That goes all the way back to high school, in a different age altogether.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

LukeJavan8
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Re: Blasé

Postby LukeJavan8 » Mon Oct 20, 2014 8:16 pm

I am almost a septuagenarian, yet I've never heard it before.
Oh well, different parts of the country maybe. thanks.
-----please, draw me a sheep-----


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