éblouir

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French esblouir, from Old French esbleuir (“to dazzle”), from Vulgar Latin *exblaudō (“to dazzle”, verb), from ex- + *blaudō (“to overwhelm, to make someone weak”, verb), from Frankish *blōthijan, *blauthijan (“to overcome, make weak”), from Proto-Germanic *blauþijaną (“to make weak, make void, soften”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰlaw- (“weak, frightened, timid”). Cognate with Old High German blōdi (“sluggish, feeble, physically weak”) ( > German blöde), Old English blēaþ (“gentle, timid, peaceful, inactive”), Danish blød (“soft”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /e.blu.iʁ/

• audio

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Verb

éblouir

1. (transitive, also figurative) to dazzle
   • 1894, Émile Zola, Les trois villes: Lourdes‎^[1]:

     Alors, toute une grande clarté monta, éblouit Pierre. Il était la raison, il protestait contre la glorification de l’absurde et la déchéance du sens commun.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 2017 January 30, Lisa Burek, “« Hacker la ville », ou comment se réapproprier l’espace urbain”, in Le Monde‎^[2]:

     Un « bonnet infrarouge » bricolé à l’aide de LED et de deux projecteurs pour éblouir les caméras de surveillance […] Avec cinquante idées […] le livre Hacker Citizen, de Goeffrey Dorne, se présente comme un « guide de survie en milieu urbain ».

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Conjugation

This is a regular verb of the second conjugation, like finir, choisir, and most other verbs with infinitives ending in -ir. One salient feature of this conjugation is the repeated appearance of the infix -iss-.

Conjugation of éblouir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	éblouir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	éblouissant /e.blu.i.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		ébloui /e.blu.i/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	éblouis /e.blu.i/	éblouis /e.blu.i/	éblouit /e.blu.i/	éblouissons /e.blu.i.sɔ̃/	éblouissez /e.blu.i.se/	éblouissent /e.blu.is/
	imperfect	éblouissais /e.blu.i.sɛ/	éblouissais /e.blu.i.sɛ/	éblouissait /e.blu.i.sɛ/	éblouissions /e.blu.i.sjɔ̃/	éblouissiez /e.blu.i.sje/	éblouissaient /e.blu.i.sɛ/
	past historic2	éblouis /e.blu.i/	éblouis /e.blu.i/	éblouit /e.blu.i/	éblouîmes /e.blu.im/	éblouîtes /e.blu.it/	éblouirent /e.blu.iʁ/
	future	éblouirai /e.blu.i.ʁe/	éblouiras /e.blu.i.ʁa/	éblouira /e.blu.i.ʁa/	éblouirons /e.blu.i.ʁɔ̃/	éblouirez /e.blu.i.ʁe/	éblouiront /e.blu.i.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	éblouirais /e.blu.i.ʁɛ/	éblouirais /e.blu.i.ʁɛ/	éblouirait /e.blu.i.ʁɛ/	éblouirions /e.blu.i.ʁjɔ̃/	éblouiriez /e.blu.i.ʁje/	éblouiraient /e.blu.i.ʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	éblouisse /e.blu.is/	éblouisses /e.blu.is/	éblouisse /e.blu.is/	éblouissions /e.blu.i.sjɔ̃/	éblouissiez /e.blu.i.sje/	éblouissent /e.blu.is/
	imperfect2	éblouisse /e.blu.is/	éblouisses /e.blu.is/	éblouît /e.blu.i/	éblouissions /e.blu.i.sjɔ̃/	éblouissiez /e.blu.i.sje/	éblouissent /e.blu.is/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	éblouis /e.blu.i/	—	éblouissons /e.blu.i.sɔ̃/	éblouissez /e.blu.i.se/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Derived terms

• éblouissant
• éblouissement

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• boulier, oublier