This week’s theme
Unusual verbs

This week’s words
pernoctate
desacralize
nuncupate
reeve
senesce

This week’s comments
AWADmail 802

Next week’s theme
Toponyms from fiction

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(suh-NES)

MEANING:

verb intr.: To grow old or decay.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin senescere (to grow old), from senex (old). Ultimately from the Indo-European root sen- (old), which is also the ancestor of senior, senate, senile, Spanish señor, sir, sire, and surly (which is an alteration of sirly, as in sir-ly). Earliest documented use: 1656.

USAGE:

“Everywhere I scrutinize, the deep structural connections are unraveling, senescing, peeling away.”
Neil Clarke; Galactic Empires; Night Shade Books; 2017.

See more usage examples of senesce in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: