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)

1. 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; […]

2. 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)

1. (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)

1. 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