Struldbrugn.
/ˈstrʌldbrʌɡ/ In Swift's Gulliver's Travels, given as the native appellation of ‘the immortals’ in the kingdom of Luggnagg, who were incapable of dying, but after the age of eighty continued to exist in a state of miserable decrepitude, regarded as legally dead, and receiving a small pittance from the state. Hence in allusive uses.
ΚΠ
1726 J. Swift Gulliver II. iii. x. 128 Struldbrugs or Immortals. 129 ff. Struldbrugg, -bruggs.
1773 A. Grant Let. 5 May in Lett. from Mountains (1806) I. 60 The sages here get a great deal of reverence and attention, not usually paid to the struldbruggs of other countries.
1784 H. Walpole Let. to H. S. Conway 25 June I am very well content to be a Strulbrug, and to exist after I have done being.
1847 H. Miller First Impressions Eng. xvi. 293 These [trees] are mere hollow trunks, of vast bulk, but stinted foliage..—mere struldbrugs of the forest.
1908 Contemp. Rev. Dec. 744 There is a danger lest the aged pensioner at home should sink into the condition of a Struldbrug.
Derivatives
Struldbruggian adj. of or relating to a Struldbrug.
ΚΠ
1909 Times Lit. Suppl. 2 Sept. 314/1 Rescuing old authors from the dangers of the Struldbruggian state.
Struldbrugism n. the condition or practice of a Struldbrug.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > age > old age > [noun] > decrepitude or senility
unelda1300
agec1405
decrepity1576
decrepitness1600
decrepitude1603
superannuation1655
decrepitage1670
decrepidity1760
caducity1769
Struldbrugism1778
1778 H. Walpole Let. to W. Mason 15 May I have long taken my doctor's degree in Strulbruggism, and wonder I concern myself about the affairs of the living.
1788 H. Walpole Let. to Lady Craven 11 Dec. When any personage has shone as much as is possible in his or her best walk,..he should take up his strulbrugism, and be heard of no more.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1919; most recently modified version published online December 2020).
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