What does effete mean?
Definitions for effete
ɪˈfitef·fete
This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word effete.
Princeton's WordNet
decadent, effeteadjective
marked by excessive self-indulgence and moral decay
"a decadent life of excessive money and no sense of responsibility"; "a group of effete self-professed intellectuals"
Wiktionary
effeteadjective
Of substances, quantities etc: exhausted, spent, worn-out.
effeteadjective
Of people: lacking strength or vitality; feeble, powerless, impotent.
effeteadjective
Decadent, self-indulgent.
Etymology: From effetus.
Samuel Johnson's Dictionary
Effeteadjective
Etymology: effætus, Latin.
It is probable that females have in them the seeds of all the young they will afterwards bring forth, which, all spent and exhausted, the animal becomes barren and effete. John Ray.
In most countries the earth would be so parched and effete by the drought, that it would afford but one harvest. Richard Bentley.
All that can be allowed him now, is to refresh his decrepit, effete sensuality with the history of his former life. South.
ChatGPT
effete
Effete generally refers to a person, object, or system characterized by being weak, worn out, unproductive, or degenerate, often due to over-refinement or too much self-indulgence. It is typically used to describe something or someone lacking in energy or effectiveness, vital power, or force. It can also imply an excessive devotion to pleasure and luxury, leading to a lack of useful activity or the loss of original vigor or force.
Webster Dictionary
Effeteadjective
no longer capable of producing young, as an animal, or fruit, as the earth; hence, worn out with age; exhausted of energy; incapable of efficient action; no longer productive; barren; sterile
Etymology: [L. effetus that has brought forth, exhausted; ex + fetus that has brought forth. See Fetus.]
Chambers 20th Century Dictionary
Effete
ef-fēt′, adj. exhausted: worn out with age. [L. effētus, weakened by having brought forth young—ex, out, fetus, a bringing forth young.]
Numerology
Chaldean Numerology
The numerical value of effete in Chaldean Numerology is: 8
Pythagorean Numerology
The numerical value of effete in Pythagorean Numerology is: 2
Examples of effete in a Sentence
We are supposed to be the children of Seth; but Seth is too much of an effete nonentity to deserve ancestral regard. No, we are the sons of Cain, and with violence can be associated the attacks on sound, stone, wood and metal that produced civilization.
Nazism ... destroys the very soul of our civilization ... I have not taken the same grave view of Bolshevism, for it never was clear to me that Bolshevism, in spite of its brutalities and cruelties, really threatened the essentials of our ethical civilization. And after all it was a revolution of a semi-barbarous people against a rotten government and an effete church. Nazi-ism in highly cultured Germany is a very different affair.
A spirit of national masochism prevails, encouraged by an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals.
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Translations for effete
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"effete." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 14 May 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/effete>.
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