degeneraten.
/dɪˈdʒɛnərət/ One who has lost, or has become deficient in, the qualities considered proper to the race or kind; a degenerate specimen; a person of debased physical or mental constitution.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > goodness and badness > inferiority or baseness > dissolute conduct > dissolute person > [noun]
unthriftc1330
castaway1526
degenerate1555
rakehellc1560
ruffian1560
reprobate1592
rakeshame1598
wag-wanton1601
pavement-beater1611
perdu1611
wantoner1665
profligate1679
rantipole1699
rakehellyc1768
society > morality > moral evil > moral or spiritual degeneration > [noun] > person
degenerate1555
iron man?1617
retrograde1633
retrogressive1847
the world > health and disease > ill health > sick person > [noun]
sickc888
lazar1340
sickmanc1340
laborant?a1425
suffererc1450
malade1483
patient1484
lazar-man1552
languisher1599
ruina1616
plaintiff1633
valetudinarist1651
valetudinaire?c1682
valetudinarian1703
invalid1709
infirm1711
invaletudinarian1762
valetudinary1785
complainant1861
aegrotant1865
degenerate1895
1555 J. Proctor Hist. Wyates Rebell. f. 80 It is to be wished..that prouoked with so greate clemencie these degenerates reforme themselues.
1895 tr. Nordau's Degeneration i. iii. 18 In the mental development of degenerates, we meet with the same irregularity that we have observed in their physical growth... That which nearly all degenerates lack is the sense of morality and of right and wrong.
1901 H. Ellis Criminal (ed. 3) iii. 51 Näcke..found the skulls of women..abnormal, and among degenerates generally..the stigmata of degeneracy are more common in women.
1919 M. K. Bradby Psycho-anal. 17 The fact..is compatible with his being a genius or a degenerate, a scoundrel or a valuable citizen.
1952 W. J. H. Sprott Social Psychol. viii. 142 The deplorable Jukes family, their dismal record of defectives and degenerates.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1933; most recently modified version published online June 2018).
degenerateadj.
/dɪˈdʒɛnərət/ I. As a past participle.
1. = Degenerated. Obsolete or archaic.
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the mind > goodness and badness > badness or evil > worse > [adjective] > declining or deteriorating > in character or quality
infecta1387
palledc1390
rustyc1390
degeneratea1513
withered1561
bastardlike1577
degenerated1581
degenerous1600
bastardized1611
degenerating1611
wormy1611
autumnal1616
blood-shrunk1634
degenered1637
reduced1689
lowered1730
eviscerated1858
labefact1874
disbloomed-
a1513 [see sense 2a].
1552 Abp. J. Hamilton Catech. Tabil sig. *.viiv How matrimonye was degenerat fra the first perf[e]ctioun.
1559 in J. Strype Ann. Reformation (1725) I. viii. 23 To what abuses the state of that lyff was degenerate.
a1586 (?a1513) W. Dunbar in W. A. Craigie Maitland Folio MS (1919) I. 213 Sic..Braillaris and boistouris degenerit [1568 Bann. degerat] fra thair naturis.
1612 F. Bacon Ess. (new ed.) 43 Observe wherein and how they have degenerate.
1733 J. Swift On Poetry 21 Degenerate from their ancient Brood.
II. Adjectival uses.
2. Having lost the qualities proper to the race or kind; having declined from a higher to a lower type; hence, declined in character or qualities; debased, degraded.
a. of persons.
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society > morality > moral evil > moral or spiritual degeneration > [adjective]
unkind1340
degeneratea1513
bastardlyc1567
regenerate1596
embased1602
sunk1602
depressed1647
abastardized1653
demoralized1800
debased1863
a1513 R. Fabyan New Cronycles Eng. & Fraunce (1516) I. ccxxxv. f. clviii Thou art degenerat & growen out of kynde.
1608 W. Shakespeare King Lear iv. 248 Lear. Degenerate bastard, ile not trouble thee, yet haue I left a daughter. View more context for this quotation
1794 S. Williams Nat. & Civil Hist. Vermont 196 The Laplanders are only degenerate Tartars.
1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 139 Tyrconnel sprang..from one of those degenerate families of the pale which were popularly classed with the aboriginal population of Ireland.
1856 J. A. Froude Hist. Eng. (1858) I. iii. 242 The degenerate representatives of a once noble institution.
b. of animals and plants: spec. in Biology (cf. degeneration n. 1b).
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1611 Bible (King James) Jer. ii. 21 How then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine? View more context for this quotation
1651 N. Bacon Contin. Hist. Disc. Govt. 6 (As a Plant transplanted into a Savage soyle) in degree and disposition wholly degenerate.
1665 T. Herbert Some Years Trav. (new ed.) 12 Penguins..the wings or fins hanging down like sleeves, covered with down instead of Feathers..a degenerate Duck.
1879 E. R. Lankester Degeneration 52 The Ascidian Phallusia shows itself to be a degenerate Vertebrate by beginning life as a tadpole.
1890 M. Marshall in Nature 11 Sept. Animals..which have lost organs or systems which their progenitors possessed, are commonly called degenerate.
c. figurative of things. (In Geometry applied to a locus of any order when reduced to the condition of an aggregate of loci of a lower order.)
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1552 [see sense 1].
1669 T. Gale Court of Gentiles: Pt. I i. vii. 36 The several names..were al but corrupt degenerate derivations from Iewish Traditions.
1763 J. Brown Diss. Poetry & Music xi. 193 The degenerate Arts sunk with the degenerate City.
1878 J. Morley Carlyle in Crit. Misc. 1st Ser. 201 The cant and formalism of any other degenerate form of active faith.
3. transferred. Characterized by degeneracy.
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society > morality > moral evil > moral or spiritual degeneration > [adjective] > characterized by degeneracy
degenerous1611
degenerate1638
1638 W. Rawley tr. F. Bacon Hist. Nat. & Exper. Life & Death 51 In Tame Creatures, their Degenerate Life, corrupteth them.
1717 A. Pope tr. Homer Iliad III. xii. 540 Such Men as live in these degen'rate Days.
1870 A. C. Swinburne in Fortn. Rev. May 574 There has never been an age that was not degenerate in the eyes of its own fools.
4. Physics.
a. Of a quantized system: having two or more linearly independent eigenfunctions with the same eigenvalue; spec. having two or more states with the same energy; also applied to the eigenfunctions or the states. Also more widely, applied to any oscillatory system having two or more modes of oscillation with the same frequency, and to the modes themselves.
ΚΠ
1923 H. L. Brose tr. A. J. W. Sommerfeld Atomic Struct. & Spectral Lines 564 We follow Schwarzschild and call the exceptional case considered degenerate. A degenerate case thus occurs..when the quantum conditions are not uniquely determined.
1929 E. U. Condon & P. M. Morse Quantum Mech. iv. 136 It is better to speak of a particular level as degenerate or non-degenerate, for there are mechanical systems in which some states are degenerate and others are not.
1940 F. Seitz Mod. Theory Solids xii. 411 The six functions do not have the proper symmetry to have the same energy in a cubic crystal. Thus, the degenerate levels would split if interatomic interactions were taken into account.
1961 J. L. Powell & B. Crasemann Quantum Mech. vi. 173 The eigenvalue α may be degenerate... Suppose, for example, that α is doubly degenerate, having linearly independent eigenfunctions ψ1 and ψ2 which may..be assumed to be orthonormal.
1968 R. C. Stanley Light & Sound for Engineers xvi. 315 If two or more normal modes [of vibration] formed by different reflection paths have the same resonant frequency..they are termed degenerate modes... In an irregularly shaped room fewer degenerate or near degenerate modes form.
b. Of a system of particles or ‘gas’ (such as the electrons in a metal or the interior of a white dwarf star): having properties which depart markedly from those of an ordinary gas as described by classical statistical mechanics, being described either by Fermi-Dirac or by Bose-Einstein statistics.
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1928 Proc. Physical Soc. 40 330 Thomas supposes the electrons in an atom to be degenerate in the sense of Fermi and Dirac.
1939 S. Chandrasekhar Introd. Study Stellar Struct. x. 358 A completely degenerate electron gas is one in which all the lowest quantum states are occupied.
1951 J. Dougall tr. M. Born Atomic Physics (ed. 5) viii. 265 Pauli and Sommerfeld (1927)..pointed out that the laws of classical statistics ought not to be applied to the electron gas within a metal, since it is bound to behave as a degenerate gas.
1954 D. ter Haar Elem. Statistical Mech. iv. 95 In the interior of some stars such high densities will occur that notwithstanding the very high stellar temperatures the gas is degenerate.
1966 New Statesman 15 Apr. 534/1 These x-ray sources..might be made of ‘degenerate matter’—matter so compacted that the atoms have collapsed down to the size of their nuclei. Such a star would be fantastically dense.
Draft additions April 2011
Genetics. Of the genetic code: having more than one nucleotide triplet encoding a single amino acid; = redundant adj. 7b.
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1957 Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 43 416 Gamow's code was also ‘degenerate’—that is, several sets of three letters (picked in a special way) stood for a particular amino acid.
1990 Nucleic Acids Res. 18 261/2 Using yeast codon usage data, a sense strand 64-fold degenerate 44-mer oligonucleotide was made to amino acid residues 1-14 2/3.
2004 R. Dawkins Ancestor's Tale 377 The DNA code being ‘degenerate’, any one amino acid can be specified by more than one ‘synonymous’ mutation.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1894; most recently modified version published online December 2020).
degeneratev.
/dɪˈdʒɛnəreɪt/ 1. intransitive. To lose, or become deficient in, the qualities proper to the race or kind; to fall away from ancestral virtue or excellence; hence (more generally), to decline in character or qualities, become of a lower type.
a. of persons.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > moral evil > moral or spiritual degeneration > degenerate [verb (intransitive)]
afallOE
fallOE
out of kinda1375
degender1539
degenerate1553
decline1604
1553 R. Eden tr. S. Münster Treat. Newe India sig. Hvj Degeneratinge from al kind of honestie & faithfulnes.
1612 T. Taylor Αρχὴν Ἁπάντων: Comm. Epist. Paul to Titus i. 12 When men degenerate, and by sinne put off the nature of man.
1651 T. Hobbes Leviathan i. xiii. 63 The manner of life, which men..degenerate into in a civill Warre.
1718 Lady M. W. Montagu Let. 10 Mar. (1965) I. 387 Tis well if I don't degenerate in a downright story teller.
1863 ‘G. Eliot’ Romola I. v. 89 In this respect Florentines have not degenerated from their ancestral customs.
b. of animals and plants.
ΚΠ
1577 H. Bull tr. M. Luther Comm. 15 Psalmes 182 They degenerate and growe out of kind, and become evill plantes.
1626 F. Bacon Sylua Syluarum §518 Plants for want of Culture, degenerate to be baser in the same kind; and sometimes so far, as to change into another kind.
1728 E. Chambers Cycl. at Degeneration 'Tis is a great Dispute among Naturalists, whether or no Animals, Plants, &c. be capable of degenerating into other Species.
1845 R. Ford Hand-bk. Travellers in Spain I. i. 53 They have, from neglect, degenerated into ponies.
c. transferred and figurative of things.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > goodness and badness > badness or evil > worse > [verb (intransitive)]
worseeOE
aswindc885
worsena1250
appair1340
impair1340
fainta1375
pairc1390
vade1471
decay1511
decline1530
degenerate1545
lapse1641
addle1654
sunset1656
deteriorate1758
worst1781
descend1829
disimprove1846
slush1882
devolute1893
worser1894
the mind > goodness and badness > badness or evil > worse > [verb (intransitive)] > in quality or character
forworthc1000
wearc1275
spilla1300
defadec1325
pall?c1335
forlinec1374
sinka1500
degender1539
degener1545
degenerate1545
dwindle1598
degenerize1606
disflourish1640
deflourish1656
waste1669
tarnish1678
devolve1830
honeycomb1868
bastardize1878
slush1882
1545 T. Raynald in tr. E. Roesslin Byrth of Mankynde i. sig. I.iiiv When they be entered into the nauell the. ii. vaynes degenerat in one.
1605 F. Bacon Of Aduancem. Learning i. sig. D1v After that the State of Rome was not it selfe, but did degenerate . View more context for this quotation
1741 Bp. J. Butler Serm. before House of Lords 14 Liberty..is..liable..to degenerate insensibly into licentiousness.
1841 I. D'Israeli Amenities Lit. I. 200 The Latin of the bar had degenerated into the most ludicrous barbarism.
d. Geometry. Of a curve or other locus: To become reduced to a lower order, or altered into a locus of a different or less complex form.
ΚΠ
1763 W. Emerson Method of Increments Pref. p. vii If the parts of the abscissa be taken infinitely small, then these parallelograms degenerate into the curve.
ΚΠ
1548 Hall's Vnion: Henry VI f. clxxvjv Jhon Talbot erle of Shrewesbury, a valeant person, and not degenerating from his noble parent.
1623 J. Bingham tr. Xenophon Hist. 48 Of such Ancestors are you descended. I speak not this, as though you degenerated from them.
1715 A. Pope tr. Homer Iliad I. iv. 451 Such Tydeus was..Gods! how the Son degen'rates from the Sire.
1739 A. Pope in Swift's Lett. (1766) II. 255 Dr. Arbuthnot's daughter does not degenerate from the humour and goodness of her father.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > change > change [verb (intransitive)]
wendeOE
braidOE
change?c1225
turnc1300
remue1340
varyc1369
flitc1386
strange1390
alter?a1425
degenerate1548
variate1605
commutatea1652
veer1670
mutate1818
reschedule1887
switch1906
to change up1920
1548 Hall's Vnion: Henry VI f. clxxv The Scottes also not degeneratyng from their olde mutabilitie.
1576 A. Fleming tr. Cicero in Panoplie Epist. 149 It is now highe time for you to degenerate, and to be unlike your selfe [i.e. less martial].
1589 E. Hayes in R. Hakluyt Princ. Navigations iii. 682 Some..followed courses degenerating from the voyage before pretended.
1597 J. Gerard Herball i. 62 It is altered..into Wheate it selfe, as degenerating from bad to better.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > duty or obligation > recognition of duty > undutifulness > disloyalty > cast off allegiance or defect [verb (intransitive)]
recede1520
defect1596
degenerate1602
to fall overa1616
to go over the wall1917
1602 R. Carew Surv. Cornwall ii. f. 98 The Cornish men..marched to..Welles, where Iames Touchet, Lord Audely, degenerated to their party.
1622 G. de Malynes Consuetudo 431 His friends forsake him, his wife and children suffer with him, or leaue him, or rebell, or degenerate against him.
5. transitive. To cause to degenerate; to reduce to a lower or worse condition; to debase, degrade.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > goodness and badness > badness or evil > worse > [verb (transitive)] > in quality or character
defade1423
debase1569
deteriorate1572
welk1579
bastardize1587
invile1599
winter1622
disimprove1642
degenerate1645
deterior1646
imbastardize1649
degrade1652
honeycomb1821
travesty1825
1645 J. Milton Tetrachordon 37 It degenerates and disorders the best spirits.
1653 Cloria & Narcissus 172 The least dejection of spirit..would degenerate you from your birth and education.
1710 Brit. Apollo 3 2/1 They.. Degenerate themselves to Brutes.
1790 W. Combe Devil upon Two Sticks IV. xiv. 113 Her theatric excellencies..are impaired by physical defects, or degenerated by the adoption of bad habits.
1870 G. H. Curteis Bampton Lect. (ed. 3) p. xxviii The nation is being degraded by drink and degenerated by impurity.
1893 J. Pulsford Loyalty to Christ II. 131 The one seeking to regenerate, and the other to degenerate yet more and more the soul's nature.
1921 E. MacNeill Celtic Ireland 17 Acquired habits..can degenerate and recreate a nation.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > creation > [verb (transitive)] > produce or bring forth > yield or produce naturally > something inferior
degeneratea1657
a1657 G. Daniel Trinarchodia: Henry V xciv, in Poems (1878) IV. 124 A bastard flye, Corrupting where it breaths..Degenerating Putrefaction.
1668 N. Culpeper & A. Cole tr. T. Bartholin Anat. (new ed.) i. xxxii. 75 It is backwards more deep and broad, that the lower and after~end might degenerate as it were the Ditch or Trench.
Derivatives
deˈgenerating n. and adj.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > goodness and badness > badness or evil > worse > [noun] > making or becoming
impairingc1380
failinga1382
aggrievance1502
decaying1530
fading1578
worsinga1583
rusting1597
degeneration1607
degenerating1611
improvementa1617
going back1631
aggravidizationa1641
disimprovement1649
decidence1655
deterioration1658
pejoration1658
exaggeration1661
marasmus1681
sinking1701
unimprovement1760
worsening1811
worsering1883
the mind > goodness and badness > badness or evil > worse > [adjective] > declining or deteriorating > in character or quality
infecta1387
palledc1390
rustyc1390
degeneratea1513
withered1561
bastardlike1577
degenerated1581
degenerous1600
bastardized1611
degenerating1611
wormy1611
autumnal1616
blood-shrunk1634
degenered1637
reduced1689
lowered1730
eviscerated1858
labefact1874
disbloomed-
1611 J. Speed Hist. Great Brit. vi. xx. 224/1 Young Commodus, his soone degenerating Sonne.
1693 tr. S. Blankaart Physical Dict. (ed. 2) 140/1 Metaptosis, the degenerating of one Disease into another, as of a Quartane Ague into a Tertian.
1746 Fool (1748) I. 35 A Degenerating from this Character is the Progress towards the Formation of a Beau.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1894; most recently modified version published online September 2021).
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n.1555
adj.a1513v.1545