purblind
Meanings
- Of a person: having impaired vision; partially blind; dim-sighted.
- Of the eyes: unable to see well, especially due to old age; weak.
- Of a person: lacking in discernment or understanding; dim-witted, unintelligent.
- Of a place: poorly illuminated; dark, dim.
- Completely blind.
- Having one eye blind.
- Near-sighted, short-sighted; myopic.
- Far-sighted, long-sighted; hypermetropic.
- A person who has impaired vision or is partially blind.
- To cause (someone) to have impaired vision or become partially blind.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
The adjective is derived from Middle English purblind (“(adjective) completely blind; blind in one eye; near-sighted; (noun) near-sighted animal, specifically a hare”) [and other forms], possibly from pur, pure (“completely, entirely”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pewH- (“to be clean; pure”); influenced by pur- (prefix meaning ‘completely; forward; in advance’)) + blind (“sightless, blind”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰlendʰ- (“to blend, mix up; to make cloudy or opaque”)). Adjective sense 4.1 (“completely blind”) was the original sense. The senses denoting partial blindness are possibly the result of confusion of the first element pur- with poor, perhaps through folk etymology. (Compare parboil regarding per versus pars.) The noun and verb are derived from the adjective.