prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (words are sexy)
prettygoodword ([personal profile] prettygoodword) wrote2016-07-19 07:41 am

purblind

purblind (PUR-blaind) - adj., having poor vision, nearly or partially blind; slow in understanding or discernment.


Originally, in the late 1200s when it was two words, pur blind, it meant completely blind, but by the mid-1400s the meaning had shifted to partial (compare the confusion over the meaning of the first part of parboil). The pur- part might originally have been a version of pure or it might have been the Anglo-Norman perfective prefix pur-.

---L.

Post a comment in response:

This account has disabled anonymous posting.
If you don't have an account you can create one now.
HTML doesn't work in the subject.
More info about formatting