apropos en · ADJ
Pronunciation
Etymology
Borrowed from French à propos (“on that subject”). Similar in meaning and form, and to some extent etymology, to appropriate, but not a doublet of it.
Meanings
-
Of an appropriate or pertinent nature.
A particularly apropos line many will remember from this film was the closing shot of a Times editorial reading "Is There No Sense of Decency?"
1974 February 9, “Tufts Porno”, in Gay Community News, volume 1, number 33, page 2:Served outside the shell and sliced in bite-sized pieces, it's as apropos for a first date as a business dinner.
2008 December, Anne Valdespino, “Mr. Stox”, in Orange Coast, volume 34, number 12, →ISSN, page 139:Nothing easier. I received not long ago a map from my friend, Augustus Petermann, at Leipzig. Nothing could be more apropos.
1877, Jules Verne, translated by Frederick Amadeus Malleson, Journey into the Interior of the Earth, Chapter VI:
-
By the way, incidental.
Sherlock Holmes rose and lit his pipe. "No doubt you think that you are complimenting me in comparing me to [C. Auguste] Dupin," he observed. "Now, in my opinion, Dupin was a very inferior fellow. That trick of his of breaking in on his friends' thoughts with an apropos remark after a quarter of an hour's silence is really very showy and superficial. He had some analytical genius, no doubt; but he was by no means such a phenomenon as [Edgar Allan] Poe appeared to imagine."
1887, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “A Study in Scarlet”, in Beeton’s Christmas Annual, London; New York, N.Y.: Ward, Lock & Co., part I (Being a reprint from the reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D., […]), chapter II (The Science of Deduction), page 14:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| most apropos | Degree=Sup | lexicographic | |
| à propos | alternative | lexicographic | |
| more apropos | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic | |
| àpropos | alternative | lexicographic |
Deriveds
Synonyms
incidentally (by the way) · by the way (by the way) · incidental (by the way)
Translations (20)
fr à propos (of an appropriate or pertinent nature) · fi osuva (of an appropriate or pertinent nature) · es a propósito (of an appropriate or pertinent nature) · gv traaoil (of an appropriate or pertinent nature) · pl dorzeczny (of an appropriate or pertinent nature) · ar مُنَاسِب (of an appropriate or pertinent nature) · es propositivo (of an appropriate or pertinent nature) · fi oleellinen (of an appropriate or pertinent nature) · ru уме́стный (of an appropriate or pertinent nature) · pl à propos (of an appropriate or pertinent nature) · pt pertinente (of an appropriate or pertinent nature) · fi sopiva (of an appropriate or pertinent nature) · el επίκαιρος (of an appropriate or pertinent nature) · sv apropå (of an appropriate or pertinent nature) · it a proposito (of an appropriate or pertinent nature) · pl stosowny (of an appropriate or pertinent nature) · pt apropriado (of an appropriate or pertinent nature) · ru подходя́щий (of an appropriate or pertinent nature) · cmn 適切 /适切 (of an appropriate or pertinent nature) · sv på tal om (of an appropriate or pertinent nature)