purblind
Part of speech: adj
noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
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.
Inflected forms:
form: more purblind
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most purblind
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: poreblind
pos: adj
tags: alternative
form: purblinds
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: purblinds
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: purblinding
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: purblinded
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: purblinded
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: Of a person: having impaired vision; partially blind; dim-sighted.
pos: adj
tags: literary
examples: Thy dignitie or autorite, wherin thou onely differest from other, is (as it were) but a weighty or heuy cloke, fresshely gliteringe in the eyen of them that be poreblynde, where unto the it is paynefull, if thou weare hym in his right facion, and as it shal best become the.
And when thou hast on foot the purblind hare, / Mark the poor wretch, to overshoot his troubles, / How he outruns the wind, and with what care, / He cranks and crosses with a thousand doubles: […]
[H]e vvent into one of the boxes at the play-houſe, as uſual, to ſhevv himſelf to the ladies; and in reconnoitring the company through a glaſs, (for no other reaſon, but becauſe it vvas faſhionable to be purblind) perceived his miſtreſs very plainly dreſſed, in one of the ſeats above the ſtage, talking to another young vvoman of a very homely appearance.
They […] ate the messes compounded for them in a darksome cupboard, known as the kitchen, by old Nanon the cook, purblind, stone-deaf, and all but imbecile, and popularly supposed to be the venerable mother of Madame Magnotte.
[T]here were shown in to us an old, worn, purblind, ascetic-looking priest, […]
gloss: Of the eyes: unable to see well, especially due to old age; weak.
pos: adj
tags: literary
gloss: Of a person: lacking in discernment or understanding; dim-witted, unintelligent.
pos: adj
tags: figuratively
literary
examples: Yet did my Breſt that glorious fire incloſe, / VVhich their dull purblind Ignorance not ſavv, […]
O purblind race of miserable men, / How many among us at this very hour / Do forge a life-long trouble for ourselves. / By taking true for false, or false for true.
When she ceased the auricular impressions from their previous endearments seemed to hustle away into the corners of their brains, repeating themselves as echoes from a time of supremely purblind foolishness.
A herd of palsied purblind idiots hugging their sterile profits close to their sunken chests in the face of my father’s displeasure.
The public is the pupae of the purposely purblind […]
Finally, between 1880 and 1900, an explosive burst of experimental activity at last drove home the truth of germ theory to all but the most purblind of critics.
gloss: Of a place: poorly illuminated; dark, dim.
pos: adj
tags: figuratively
literary
gloss: Completely blind.
pos: adj
tags: literary
obsolete
examples: Speake to my goſhip Venus one faire vvord, / One nickname for her purblind ſonne and her, / Young Abraham: Cupid he that ſhot ſo true, / VVhen King Cophetua lou'd the beger mayd.
This vvimpled vvhy[n]ing purblind vvayvvard Boy, / This ſignior Iunios gyant dvvarffe, dan Cupid, […]
This is a nevv ſalute: / Sure h'as forgot me: this is pur-blinde Cupid.
gloss: Having one eye blind.
pos: adj
tags: literary
obsolete
examples: The French haue a good Prouerbe. Entre les auengles, les borgnes ſont les Roys: Among the blinde, the pore blind are the Kings. And thus they vvhich haue no skill in tongues, vvill boldly ſay, that this or that man doth perfectly, and vvithout ſtamering, ſpeake many tongs.
gloss: Near-sighted, short-sighted; myopic.
pos: adj
tags: literary
obsolete
examples: The man that is pore blinde, cannot ſee far from hym. And as to ioke on deth we be for the moſt part pore blinde all yͭ mayny: for we cannot ſee hym til he cõe [come] very nere vs. But theſe folk be not pore blynde but ſtarke blynde: for they cãnot ſee him when he commeth ſo nere, yͭ hee putteth almoſte his finger in theyr eye.
Pore-blinde Men, ſee beſt in the Dimmer Lights; And likevviſe haue their Sight Stronger neere hand, than thoſe that are not Pore-blinde, And can Reade and VVrite ſmaller Letters.
I am sorry to hear your complaints still of giddiness. I was in hopes you would have mended, like my purblind eyes, with old age.
gloss: Far-sighted, long-sighted; hypermetropic.
pos: adj
tags: literary
obsolete
rare
gloss: A person who has impaired vision or is partially blind.
pos: noun
tags: literary
examples: If the miraculous Blood fails of diſſolving at its Approach to the miraculous Head, the vviſe Neapolitans look on it as an Omen of ſome more grievous Judgmt. than our Foreſighted Purblinds do of a Salt's Overthrovv on Table; but vvhen it benignly liquifies 'tis then a ſure Token of heavenly Favour, and the Able Pious ſurely make rich Offerings accordingly.
To love and adore is our proper province, not to knovv much; for as to knovvledge, vve are mere purblinds both in naturals and ſpirituals.
By the freak of Fortune we were like to like, three Kalendars and three purblinds, all blind of the left eye.
gloss: To cause (someone) to have impaired vision or become partially blind.
pos: verb
tags: literary
transitive
examples: And may the Sun, that novv begins t'appear / I'th Horizon to uſher in the year, / Melt all thoſe fatuous Vapours, vvhoſe falſe light / Purblinds the VVorld, and leads them from the right; […]
It is ſtrange to think, hovv ſound and clear, and diſtinct a Man's Judgment, vvill be againſt thoſe Evils in others, vvhich he ſeeth not in himſelf; […] Self-love ſo purblinds them in this Reflection, that they cannot diſcern that in themſelves, vvhich others cannot but diſcern.
Were he not, as has been said, purblinded by enchantment, you had but to bid him open his eyes and look.
[H]is [Albert, Prince Consort's] self-isolation from politics, whether of court or country, commanded a national admiration, intense no doubt, but tempered with a suspicion of "part-playing" unjust to the man as it would have been unpardonable in the people, had it not originated in that traditional jealousy of the democracy not only of England, but of every other country, which purblinds it to the integrity of beneficial influences flowing spontaneously through an atmosphere of regal regions.
My only light was provided by a one-hundred-watt G.E. bulb hanging from a mouse-chewed wire above my bed. The glare from this light was purblinding and I wrapped toilet paper around it to act as a shade.
Related words: moonblind
sandblind
Derived words: purblinded
purblindly
purblindness
Translations: