debility
Appearance
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle English debylite, from Old French debilité (French débilité), from Latin dēbilitās (“weakness”), from dēbilis (“weak”), from dē- + habilis (“able”).
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]debility (countable and uncountable, plural debilities)
- A state of physical or mental weakness.
- 1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC:
- As I was in a state of extreme debility, I resolved to sail directly towards the town, as a place where I could most easily procure nourishment.
[…]
I was ready to sink from fatigue and hunger, but being surrounded by a crowd, I thought it politic to rouse all my strength, that no physical debility might be construed into apprehension or conscious guilt.
- 1886, Robert Louis Stephenson, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde:
- I was struck besides with the shocking expression of his face, with his remarkable combination of great muscular activity and great apparent debility of constitution
Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]state of weakness
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Further reading
[edit]- “debility”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “debility”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 4-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɪlɪti
- Rhymes:English/ɪlɪti/4 syllables
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations