But soon the traveller from Paris will be shocked by a certain air of self-satisfaction and self-complacency mingled with an almost indefinable narrowness and lack of inspiration.
That phrase is borrowed from the French for, I don't know what, but now refers to that little somethin' somethin' that's indefinable or je ne sais quoi.
这个短语是从法语中借来的,我不知道是什么意思, 但现在指的是无法定义的小东西或 je ne sais quoi。
Mrs. Penniman, moreover, though she had a good deal of a certain sort of artificial assurance, shrank, for indefinable reasons, from presenting herself to her brother as a fountain of instruction.
Well, when I said influence, I meant the indefinable sort, the intangible, subtle benefit of an input into broad general policy at its early stages while keeping the interests of the constituency in mind.
You will become interested in the whole business of definition: the difference between defining words and defining things; why some words are indefinable, and yet have definite meanings, and so forth.