évanoui

Évanoui is a French adjective and the past participle of the verb évanouir. It describes a state of unconsciousness or fainting: il est évanoui after the fall; elle est évanouie after an incident. As an adjective it agrees with the subject in gender and number (masculine évanoui, feminine évanouie; plural évanouis, évanouies). In medical or clinical contexts, it denotes someone who has lost consciousness.

Étymologie and sense: évanoui derives from the verb évanouir, which comes from Latin evanescere, meaning “to fade away” or “to disappear gradually.” The figurative sense of fading or vanishing is common in expressions such as son espoir s’était évanoui (his/her hope had faded away).

Usage: the reflexive form s’évanouir is used for the act of fainting: il s’est évanoui; elle s’est évanouie. The non-reflexive adjective évanoui is used to describe someone who is unconscious at a given moment or to describe something that has figuratively faded or disappeared, as in une lumière évanouie. In everyday speech, euphemisms or slang for fainting include tomber dans les pommes.

See also: évanouissement, the noun for fainting or loss of consciousness, and the related verb s’évanouir for the action of fainting. The term évanoui is primarily encountered in medical, literary, and formal French, with figurative uses common in narrative prose.