effete
[ih-feet]
- lacking in wholesome vigor; degenerate; decadent: an effete, overrefined society.
- exhausted of vigor or energy; worn out: an effete political force.
- unable to produce; sterile.
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Origin of effete
Synonyms
See more synonyms for effete on Thesaurus.com2. enervated, debilitated.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for effete
Contemporary Examples
Some critics have made the same sorts of arguments about the remote and effete president.
Unlike their effete northeastern shadows, country boys rarely fade away.
The courtiers were an effete and in some cases epicene crew.
It sees test scores as effete and irrelevant, like the older privileges of birth.
When I went to basketball camp, the boys from the real West Virginia would make fun of us effete Morgantown kids.
Historical Examples
No mistaking you for anything but what you are—the sickly product of an effete civilisation.
Audrey CravenMay Sinclair
Only look at the theological quiddities of effete scholasticism.
Erasmus and the Age of ReformationJohan Huizinga
They call us rough, and we try to get even by terming them effete.
The Prairie MotherArthur Stringer
In fine, it will become old and effete, no less truly than the individual.
Natural Law in the Spiritual WorldHenry Drummond
She scorned the suggestion that a bath-room be added; an effete idea.
The Heart of ArethusaFrancis Barton Fox
effete
- weak, ineffectual, or decadent as a result of overrefinementan effete academic
- exhausted of vitality or strength; worn out; spent
- (of animals or plants) no longer capable of reproduction
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Word Origin
C17: from Latin effētus having produced young, hence, exhausted by bearing, from fētus having brought forth; see fetus
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for effete
adj.
1620s, from Latin effetus (usually in fem. effeta) "exhausted, unproductive, worn out (with bearing offspring), past bearing," literally "that has given birth," from a lost verb, *efferi, from ex- "out" (see ex-) + fetus "childbearing, offspring" (see fetus). Figurative use is earliest in English; literal use is rare. Sense of "exhausted" is 1660s; that of "intellectually or morally exhausted" (1790) led to "decadent" (19c.).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper