impair: [14] If to repair something is to ‘put it right’, it seems logical that to impair something should be to ‘make it wrong’. In fact, though, logic has nothing to do with it, for the two words are quite unrelated. Repair comes ultimately from Latin parāre ‘make ready’, whereas impair goes back via Old French empeirier to Vulgar Latin *impējōrāre ‘make worse’.
impair (v.)
late 14c., earlier ampayre, apeyre (c. 1300), from Old French empeirier (Modern French empirer), from Vulgar Latin *impeiorare "make worse," from assimilated form of in- "into, in" (see in- (2)) + Late Latin peiorare "make worse" (see pejorative). In reference to driving under the influence of alcohol, first recorded 1951 in Canadian English. Related: Impaired; impairing.
例文
1. Tiredness can seriously impair your ability to drive.
疲労はあなたの運転能力に大きく影響します。
2.It can not impair the intellectual vigor of the young.
これは若者の思想的活力を消すことができない。
3.The author 's half drunken state did not in the least impair his eminence in my eyes.
私の目には、この作家の酔っぱらった酔っ払いぶりは彼の高尚さを損なうことはない。
4.A recurrence of such an oversight could impair our amicable relations.
のような油断が再発すれば、双方の友好的な貿易関係を損なう可能性がある。
5.To weaken，injure，or impair ，often by degrees or imperceptibly；sap.