imbécile

See also: imbecile

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin imbēcillus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.be.sil/

• Audio:

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• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

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• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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• Audio (France (Somain)):

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Adjective

imbécile (plural imbéciles)

1. stupid, foolish, acting like an imbecile

Derived terms

• imbécilité (post-1990 spelling)
• imbécillité

Descendants

• → Danish: imbecil
• → Dutch: imbeciel
• → Finnish: imbesilli
• → Gallo: ibecile
• → German: imbezil (see there for further descendants)
• → Norwegian Bokmål: imbesil
• → Norwegian Nynorsk: imbesil
• → Romanian: imbecil
• → Swedish: imbecil, imbecill
• → Turkish: embesil

Noun

imbécile m or f (plural imbéciles)

1. imbecile

   Me prenez-vous pour un imbécile ?

   Do you take me for an idiot?

   • 1985, “On est tous des imbéciles”, performed by Mylène Farmer:

     On est tous des imbéciles / On est bien très bien débile

     We're all idiots / We are really, really, stupid

Further reading

• “imbécile”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012