absent-minded

absent-minded

See also: absentminded

English

Alternative forms

• absentminded

Etymology

absent +‎ minded

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌæb.sn̩tˈmaɪn.dɪd/

Adjective

absent-minded (comparative more absent-minded, superlative most absent-minded) (possessional)

1. Absent in mind; often preoccupied; forgetful or careless due to distraction; easily distracted. [First attested in the mid 19^th century.][1]

   It took the absent-minded man twenty minutes to find his glasses on top of his head.

Derived terms

• absent-mindedness
• absent-mindedly
• absent-minded professor

Translations

absent in mind

Acehnese: tahe Belarusian: рассе́яны (rassjéjany) Bulgarian: (please verify) разсеян (bg) (razsejan), (please verify) потънал в мисли (potǎnal v misli) Catalan: distret (ca) Chinese: Cantonese: 鬆散 (sung1 saan2) Mandarin: 心不在焉 (zh) (xīnbùzàiyān), 鬆散／松散 (zh) (sōngsǎn) Czech: roztržitý (cs) Danish: åndsfraværende, distræt Dutch: verstrooid (nl), afwezig (nl), elders met zijn gedachten, er niet bij Finnish: hajamielinen (fi) (forgetful), poissaoleva (fi) (absent in mind) French: distrait (fr) Galician: distraído, pampo (gl), apirolado (vulgar) German: zerstreut (de), geistesabwesend (de) Hebrew: מפוזר‎ m (mefuzár) Hungarian: szórakozott (hu) Irish: dearmadach Italian: svanito (it) Japanese: ぼんやり (ja) (bon'yari), 上の空の (ja) (うわのそらの, uwa-no sora-no) Maori: hinengaro makere, wareware, pakihaha Norwegian: Bokmål: distré (no), åndsfraværende Nynorsk: distré, åndsfråverande Polish: roztargniony (pl) Portuguese: distraído (pt), desatento (pt) Romanian: absent (ro), distrat (ro) Russian: рассе́янный (ru) (rasséjannyj) Serbo-Croatian: rasejan, расејан, rasijan (sh) Spanish: distraído (es), despistado (es), desatento (es) Swedish: tankspridd (sv) Tagalog: tagulimot Turkish: unutkan (tr) (forgetful), dalgın (tr) (absent in mind)

References

1. Lesley Brown, editor-in-chief; William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, editors (2002), “absent-minded”, in The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 5th edition, Oxford; New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 9.