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French
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin arbitrārius.
Pronunciation
Adjective
arbitraire (plural arbitraires)
- arbitrary (determined by impulse)
- 1864, Rudolf Charles, Preface to Testament by Jean Meslier, page 13
Un acte arbitraire, réprouvé par l’ensemble des membres me paraît avoir éveillé ce désir de vengeance qui tua pour des années tout sentiment sympathique pour nous dans la poitrine de l’homme en question.- An arbitrary act, condemned by all members, seems to me to have awakened this desire for revenge which for years killed all sympathetic feelings for us in the breast of the man in question.
1913, Marcel Proust, chapter 1, in Du côté de chez Swann [Swann's Way] (À la recherche du temps perdu):Même à l’heure où elle se manifestait par cette grâce, la conduite de mon père à mon égard gardait ce quelque chose d’arbitraire et d’immérité qui la caractérisait et qui tenait à ce que généralement elle résultait plutôt de convenances fortuites que d’un plan prémédité.- Even at the moment when it manifested itself in this crowning mercy, my father's conduct towards me was still somewhat arbitrary, and regardless of my deserts, as was characteristic of him and due to the fact that his actions were generally dictated by chance expediencies rather than based on any formal plan.
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