effete

[ih-feet]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR effete ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

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.

Origin of effete

1615–25; < Latin effēta exhausted from bearing, equivalent to ef- ef- + fēta having brought forth, feminine past participle of lost v.; see fetus

Related formsef·fete·ly, adverbef·fete·ness, nounnon·ef·fete, adjectivenon·ef·fete·ly, adverbnon·ef·fete·ness, nounun·ef·fete, adjectiveun·ef·fete·ness, noun

Can be confusedeffeminate effete feminine womanish womanly (see synonym study at womanly)

Synonyms for effete

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR effete ON THESAURUS.COM

2. enervated, debilitated.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for effete

Contemporary Examples of effete

Some critics have made the same sorts of arguments about the remote and effete president.
The McConnell Friend Obama Just Hired
Jonathan Miller
November 10, 2014
Unlike their effete northeastern shadows, country boys rarely fade away.
Let Us Now Praise Famous Rednecks and Their Unjustly Unsung Kin
Allison Glock
August 23, 2014
The courtiers were an effete and in some cases epicene crew.
Queen Victoria’s Secret Scottish Sex Castle
Clive Irving
August 17, 2014
It sees test scores as effete and irrelevant, like the older privileges of birth.
We Need More Class Traitors: Solving America’s Meritocracy Problem
Jedediah Purdy
April 20, 2014
When I went to basketball camp, the boys from the real West Virginia would make fun of us effete Morgantown kids.
In West Virginia Water, an Environmental Nightmare Borders on Crisis
Michael Tomasky
January 10, 2014

Historical Examples of effete

No mistaking you for anything but what you are—the sickly product of an effete civilisation.
Audrey Craven
May Sinclair
Only look at the theological quiddities of effete scholasticism.
Erasmus and the Age of Reformation
Johan Huizinga
They call us rough, and we try to get even by terming them effete.
The Prairie Mother
Arthur Stringer
In fine, it will become old and effete, no less truly than the individual.
Natural Law in the Spiritual World
Henry Drummond
She scorned the suggestion that a bath-room be added; an effete idea.
The Heart of Arethusa
Francis Barton Fox

British Dictionary definitions for effete

effete

adjective

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

Derived Formseffetely, adverbeffeteness, noun

Word Origin for effete

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 Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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.).