From Middle English impairen, empeiren, from Old French empeirier, from Early Medieval Latin impeiōrāre, from in- + Late Latin peiōrāre (“worsen”), from peiōrem (“worse”), comparative of malus (“bad”).
Meanings
(obsolete) Not fit or appropriate; unsuitable.
giues he not till iudgement guide his bounty, / Nor dignifies an impaire thought with breath: c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene v]:
From Middle English impairen, empeiren, from Old French empeirier, from Early Medieval Latin impeiōrāre, from in- + Late Latin peiōrāre (“worsen”), from peiōrem (“worse”), comparative of malus (“bad”).
Meanings
(obsolete) The act of impairing or deteriorating.
(obsolete) The fact of being impaired or having grown worse.
(obsolete) An impairment or deterioration.
Suppoſe a mans credit ſhould ſuffer an impair with thoſe whoſe cenſure is not to be valued; yet think, which is worſe, ſhame or ſin? Wilt thou ſin againſt God to ſave thy credit? 1671, Thomas Watson, The Beatitudes, pages 146–147:
From Middle English impairen, empeiren, from Old French empeirier, from Early Medieval Latin impeiōrāre, from in- + Late Latin peiōrāre (“worsen”), from peiōrem (“worse”), comparative of malus (“bad”).
Meanings
(transitive) To weaken; to affect negatively; to have a diminishing effect on.
In 2016, it was announced that Jones had been diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia, a form of dementia that impairs the ability to communicate. 2020 January 22, Stuart Jeffries, “Terry Jones obituary”, in The Guardian:
(archaic, intransitive) To grow worse; to deteriorate.
Flesh may empaire,[…]but reason can repaire. 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC: