blasé (2009-06-25)

Part of Speech: adjective

Pronunciation: [blah-'zey]

Definition: Sophisticatedly indifferent; superciliously casual in one's attitude, especially toward exciting things.

Usage: When you need a sophisticated way to express "indifferent," today's word is your ticket, "Since Richfield left Margaret she has been much more blasé about housekeeping." Use it at work, "I wouldn't be so blasé about their changing the lock on your office door, Lance; I think it means something," or at play, "Ray was utterly blasé about his roller-coaster ride; nothing ruffles him."

Suggested Usage: Since this word has retained all its "Frenchiness," there are no corresponding adverbs or nouns. It may be compared, though: "more blasé," "most blasé."

Etymology: Past participle of French dialectal verb blaser "to exhaust enjoyment of" or "be chronically hung over." The French probably borrowed the verb from Middle Dutch blasen "to blow up, swell." If so, it goes back to PIE *bhle- which underlies English "blow," "bladder," and "blaze. "Blather" came into English from the Old Norse (Viking) variant bladhra "to prattle." The initial PIE "bh" converts to "f" in Latin, where the root turns up in flare "to blow" whose past participle, flat-, is found in "inflate," "flatulent," "flavor," and, believe it or not, French "soufflé" from Latin sub "under" + flare. Latin "flare" [flah-rey] appears to be unrelated to English "flare" [fleyr].