mirobolant
French
FWOTD – 3 August 2018
Etymology
Ultimately from Latin myrobalanum, from Ancient Greek μυροβάλανος (murobálanos). First attested in 1838. Likely originates as Mirobolan, the name of a medicine in Crispin medecin, a 1680 comedy by Hauteroche, a humorous reinterpretation/respelling of myrobolan (“myrobalan, a medicinal plant”) as present participle of the (then) non-existent verb miroboler, as if from mirer (“to stare intensely”), from Latin mīrārī (“to wonder, marvel at”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /mi.ʁɔ.bɔ.lɑ̃/
Audio (file)
Adjective
mirobolant (feminine mirobolante, masculine plural mirobolants, feminine plural mirobolantes)
- great, extraordinary, incredible
- L'État a dépensé des sommes mirobolantes sur ce projet.
- The State spent an extraordinary amount of funds on this project.
- 1884, Joris-Karl Huysmans, chapter IX, in À rebours [Against the Grain]:
- Son ennui devint sans borne ; la joie de posséder de mirobolantes floraisons était tarie ; il était déjà blasé sur leur contexture et sur leurs nuances ; […]
- His boredom soon had no limits; the joy of possessing stunning blossoms had dried up; their hues and their contexture had become distasteful to him; […]
- extremely unrealizable, infeasible (too magnificent or beautiful to be practicable)
- Le projet fut tout à fait mirobolant.
- The project was entirely beyond feasibility.
Descendants
- → Italian: mirabolante
- → Portuguese: mirabolante
- → Romanian: mirobolant
Noun
mirobolant m (plural mirobolants)
- (rare, ironic) wonder, marvel (something extraordinary, causing amazement)
Further reading
- “mirobolant”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Romanian
Etymology
Borrowing from French mirobolant.
Adjective
mirobolant m or n (feminine singular mirobolantă, masculine plural mirobolanți, feminine and neuter plural mirobolante)
- extraordinary, incredible, magnificent
Declension
Declension of mirobolant
| singular | plural | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| masculine | neuter | feminine | masculine | neuter | feminine | ||
| nominative/ accusative | indefinite | mirobolant | mirobolantă | mirobolanți | mirobolante | ||
| definite | mirobolantul | mirobolanta | mirobolanții | mirobolantele | |||
| genitive/ dative | indefinite | mirobolant | mirobolante | mirobolanți | mirobolante | ||
| definite | mirobolantului | mirobolantei | mirobolanților | mirobolantelor | |||