effete

English

Alternative forms

• effœte (obsolete)

Etymology

From Latin effētus (“exhausted”, literally “that has given birth”), 1620s.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɪˈfiːt/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ɪˈfit/
  • Rhymes: -iːt

Adjective

effete (comparative more effete, superlative most effete)

1. (obsolete, of substances, quantities etc) exhausted, spent, worn-out.

   Synonyms: low, used up; see also Thesaurus:depleted

   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 4, member 1, subsection v:

     Nature is not effœte, as he saith, or so lavish, to bestow all her gifts upon an age, but hath reserved some for posterity, to shew her power, that she is still the same, and not old or consumed.

2. Lacking strength or vitality; feeble, powerless, impotent.

   Synonyms: low, puny; see also Thesaurus:weak

   • 1929, George Macaulay Trevelyan, History of England: From 1485 to the End of the Reign of Queen Anne, 1714, page 457:

     Amid the effete monarchies and princedoms of feudal Europe, morally and materially exhausted by the Thirty Years' War, the only hope of resistance to France lay in the little Republic of merchants, Holland.

   • 1989, Greil Marcus, Lipstick Traces, Faber & Faber, published 2009:

     They used rock'n'roll as a weapon against itself. With all instruments but guitar, bass, drums, and voice written off as effete, as elitist accoutrements of a professionalist cult of technique, it was music best suited to anger and frustration, […]

   • 2007, Jules Witcover, Very Strange Bedfellows: The Short and Unhappy Marriage of Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew, page 74:

     A spirit of national masochism prevails, encouraged by an effete core of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals (Spiro Agnew, October 1969)

   • 2007 August 19, Luc Sante, “On the Road Again”, in New York Times‎^[1]:

     Most writers merely produce effete works on paper, you might say, but Kerouac went and wrestled with the tree itself.

   • 2018, Michael Cottakis, Colliding worlds: Donald Trump and the European Union:

     For the President, the EU is an essentially effete project – a civilian power that likes to see itself as human rights based and collegiate, but with no hard power of its own.

3. Decadent, weak through self-indulgence.

   Synonyms: dissipated, incontinent

   • 2005, David Foster Wallace, Consider the Lobster and Other Essays, New York: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 238:

     In fact, one obvious project of the MLF […] is to counter the idea that lobster is unusually luxe or unhealthy, suitable only for effete palates or the occasional blow-the-diet treat.

4. (of a person) Affected, overrefined.

   Synonyms: fey, pretentious, stilted; see also Thesaurus:pretentious

   • 1996, David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest […], Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 266:

     The Port Washington players all wear matching socks and shorts and tucked-in shirts. They look sharp but effete, a mannequinish aspect to them.

Derived terms

• effetely
• effeteness
• noneffete
• uneffete

Translations

lacking strength

• Bulgarian: изчерпан (bg) (izčerpan), изтощен (bg) (iztošten)
• Catalan: exhaust
• French: affaibli (fr)
• German: kraftlos (de), entkräftet (de), schwach (de), erschöpft (de), schwächlich (de), lasch (de), lahm (de), matt (de), dürftig (de)
• Greek: μαλθακός (el) (malthakós)
• Italian: logoro (it)
• Romanian: slăbit (ro)
• Russian: истощённый (ru) (istoščónnyj)
• Spanish: débil (es)
• Ukrainian: виснажений m (vysnaženyj), знесилений m (znesylenyj)

decadent

• Bulgarian: упадъчен (bg) (upadǎčen)
• Catalan: decadent (ca)
• French: décadent (fr)
• German: verweichlicht (de), verwöhnt (de), dekadent (de), effeminiert
• Russian: упаднический (ru) (upadničeskij)
• Spanish: decadente (es)
• Ukrainian: занепадницький m (zanepadnycʹkyj), декадентський m (dekadentsʹkyj)

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /efˈfeː.te/, [ɛfˈfeːt̪ɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /efˈfe.te/, [efˈfɛːt̪e]

Adjective

effēte

1. vocative masculine singular of effētus