effete

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Contents

English [edit]

Alternative forms [edit]

Etymology [edit]

From Latin effetus (that has given birth; exhausted).

Pronunciation [edit]

Adjective [edit]

effete (comparative more effete, superlative most effete)

  1. (obsolete) Of substances, quantities etc: exhausted, spent, worn-out.
    • 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, II.4.1.v:
      Nature is not effœte, as he saith, or so lavish, to bestow all her gifts upon an age, but hath reserved some for posterity, to shew her power, that she is still the same, and not old or consumed.
  2. (now rare) Of people: lacking strength or vitality; feeble, powerless, impotent.
  3. Decadent, self-indulgent.

Translations [edit]

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Derived terms [edit]


Latin [edit]

Adjective [edit]

effēte

  1. vocative masculine singular of effētus