English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
absent + minded
Pronunciation[edit]
Adjective[edit]
absent-minded (comparative more absent-minded, superlative most absent-minded) (possessional)
- Absent in mind; often preoccupied; forgetful or careless due to distraction; easily distracted. [First attested in the mid 19th century.][1]
- Coordinate terms: mindless, unmindful
- It took the absent-minded man twenty minutes to find his glasses on top of his head.
1900, Kenneth Grahame, The Golden Age, page 110:His figure was bent in apologetic protest. "I ask a thousand pardons, sir," he said; "I am really so very absent-minded."
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
absent in mind
- Acehnese: tahe
- Belarusian: рассе́яны (rassjéjany)
- Bulgarian: разсе́ян (bg) (razséjan), заве́ян (bg) (zavéjan)
- Catalan: distret (ca)
- Chinese:
- Cantonese: 鬆散／松散 (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)
- Macedonian: расеан (rasean)
- 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, despistado (es), desatento (es)
- Swedish: tankspridd (sv)
- Tagalog: tagulimot
- Turkish: unutkan (tr) (forgetful), dalgın (tr) (absent in mind)
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References[edit]
- ^ 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.
