Impaired

How to spell impaired

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce impaired

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does impaired mean?

1. adjectiveWeakened or damaged so that something no longer works as well as it should.
2. verbWeakened or damaged the strength, value, or function of something.

Impaired in a sentence

• adjective

  The accident left her with permanently impaired hearing.

• verb

  Years of heavy lifting had impaired the strength of his back.

• adjective

  Driving while impaired by alcohol carries a heavy penalty.

• verb

  The scandal seriously impaired the company's reputation.

Where does impaired come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Late Latin impejorare, meaning 'to make worse', which was built from the prefix in- and the adjective pejor, meaning 'worse' (the same root that gives us 'pejorative'). The verb passed into Old French as empeirier or empirer, carrying the sense of damaging or worsening something. Middle English borrowed it around the 1300s as 'empeiren' or 'apeiren', and over time the spelling was refashioned to resemble its Latin parent more closely, giving us the 'im-' opening. The 'paired' portion has nothing to do with pairs or couples; that visual coincidence is exactly the trap, since the word is really about something being made worse. The participle 'impaired' settled into use as an adjective describing any faculty or function that has been weakened or damaged.

How the word is built

• im- (intensive form of in-)
• pair (from empeirier: to make worse)
• -ed (past participle / adjective suffix)