mirobolant

Ultimately from Latin myrobalanum, from Ancient Greek μυροβάλανος (murobálanos). First attested in 1838. Likely originates as Mirobolan, the name of a medicine in Crispin medecin, a 1680 comedy by Hauteroche, a humorous reinterpretation/respelling of myrobolan (“myrobalan, a medicinal plant”) as present participle of the (then) non-existent verb miroboler, as if from mirer (“to stare intensely”), from Latin mīrārī (“to wonder, marvel at”).

• IPA^(key): /mi.ʁɔ.bɔ.lɑ̃/

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mirobolant (feminine mirobolante, masculine plural mirobolants, feminine plural mirobolantes)

1. great, extraordinary, incredible

   L’État a dépensé des sommes mirobolantes sur ce projet.

   The State spent an extraordinary amount of funds on this project.

   • 1884, Joris-Karl Huysmans, chapter IX, in À rebours [Against the Grain]:

     Son ennui devint sans borne ; la joie de posséder de mirobolantes floraisons était tarie ; il était déjà blasé sur leur contexture et sur leurs nuances ; […]

     His boredom soon had no limits; the joy of possessing stunning blossoms had dried up; their hues and their contexture had become distasteful to him;

2. extremely unrealizable, infeasible (too magnificent or beautiful to be practicable)

   Le projet fut tout à fait mirobolant.

   The project was entirely beyond feasibility.

• → Italian: mirabolante
• → Portuguese: mirabolante
• → Romanian: mirobolant

mirobolant m (plural mirobolants)

1. (rare, ironic) wonder, marvel (something extraordinary, causing amazement)

• “mirobolant”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Borrowing from French mirobolant.

mirobolant m or n (feminine singular mirobolantă, masculine plural mirobolanți, feminine and neuter plural mirobolante)

1. extraordinary, incredible, magnificent