Link Centre Dictionary

purblind

purb·lind

UK/ˈpɜːblaɪnd/ US/ˈpɝblaɪnd/ uncommon literary obsolete rare

adjective

1.
2.

lacking in insight or discernment

  • “too obtuse to grasp the implications of his behavior”
  • “a purblind oligarchy that flatly refused to see that history was condemning it to the dustbin” Jasper Griffin
Synonyms
Similar

Origin

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.

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.