Make Your Point > Archived Issues > BLASÉ
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pronounce
BLASÉ:
Say it "blah ZAY."
To hear it, click here.
connect this word to others:
Feel free to get blasé about the word blasé by leaving off that fancy mark over the "e." Many writers do.
Or be a little more concerned about it, and leave it on. I'll do that. And I'll do the same with these other French-derived terms:
1. Él__ is a hasty, sudden enthusiasm or liveliness.
2. A mon___e s__ré (two words) is a famous person with a weird, unique personality.
3. Someone or something dég__é is very relaxed, not at all nervous, and not at all emotional.
(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)
definition:
We took our word "blasé" straight from French, where it means "exhausted due to too much enjoyment." Too much of a good thing, at least in French, might make you blasé.
In English, we might sometimes use that same meaning: "bored or uninterested because you've seen it too much or done it too often."
But most of the time, we use the looser meaning that developed later. To be blasé is to be not worried about something, or not interested in something--especially if it's something that you really should be more concerned about.
grammatical bits:
Part of speech:
Adjective: "her bored, blasé expression;" "He stood there with his hands in his pockets, looking blasé."
Other forms:
You can write it without the mark, if you like: "blase."
how to use it:
"Blasé" is a rare word, but not super-rare.
Pick it whenever you need to call some extra attention to someone's attitude that seems to say, "Yeah, okay, whatever," in an entirely inappropriate situation.
Talk about blasé people, comments, attitudes, or facial expressions.
Often we say that someone is blasé about things: "She's blasé about her upcoming deadline." "How can he be so blasé about that cool explosion?"
examples:
"It put me in mind of those nuclear power plants where blasé technicians had grown so weary of false alarms that they'd begun to miss the real ones, with profound consequences."
— Ted Conover, Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing, 2000
"[District Attorney Larry Krasner] came under fierce scrutiny when a 25-year-old... was gunned down while walking his dog. The suspected gunman had a long felony rap sheet and was at large because his bail had been sharply reduced two weeks earlier... Critics said the death was the price paid for Mr. Krasner's blase attitude toward violent crime."
— James Varney, Washington Times, 1 February 2021
has this page helped you understand "blasé"?
study it:
Explain the meaning of "blasé" without saying "dismissive" or "unconcerned."
try it out:
When I think of the word "blasé," I think of Chad from the Saturday Night Live skits, the character who's always shrugging and saying "okay," no matter how weird things get.
Here he is in a horror skit, on the phone with a vicious killer who's just said to him: "I'm watching you right now:"
With Chad in mind as an example, talk about another person (real or fictional) who often acts blasé.
before you review, play:
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
Our game for April is "Netflix and Anagram."
Check out the anagrammed title of a series or movie you can watch on Netflix, along with a descriptive sentence or two about it from Google. See if you can come up with the real title. To see the answer, scroll all the way down.
Here's an example. IF CRUEL: "After abandoning his throne and retiring to Los Angeles, he indulges in his favorite things (women, wine and song) -- until a murder takes place outside of his upscale nightclub." The answer is LUCIFER.
Try this one today:
SPY SUSHI: "An unfathomable incident introduces a genius engineer to dangerous secrets of the world — and to a woman from the future who's come looking for him." (Perhaps his work was an uphill slog before all that.)
review this word:
A. FRETFUL.
B. FRIENDLY.
C. FUNCTIONAL.
2.
The Onion joked, "He wouldn't act so blasé if he knew he'd be spending his term inside Norway's most _____—the Fjordview Wellness Retreat."
A. posh nightclub
B. notorious prison
C. transformational getaway
a final word:
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.
I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
From my blog:
36 ways to study words.
Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.
Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
Feel free to get blasé about the word blasé by leaving off that fancy mark over the "e." Many writers do.
We took our word "blasé" straight from French, where it means "exhausted due to too much enjoyment." Too much of a good thing, at least in French, might make you blasé.
Part of speech:
"Blasé" is a rare word, but not super-rare.
"It put me in mind of those nuclear power plants where blasé technicians had grown so weary of false alarms that they'd begun to miss the real ones, with profound consequences."
Explain the meaning of "blasé" without saying "dismissive" or "unconcerned."
When I think of the word "blasé," I think of Chad from the Saturday Night Live skits, the character who's always shrugging and saying "okay," no matter how weird things get.
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.
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