senescent

See also: sénescent

English

Etymology

From Latin senescens, present participle of senescere (“to grow old”), from senere (“to be old”), from senex (“old”).

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɛsənt

• Audio (US):

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Adjective

senescent (comparative more senescent, superlative most senescent)

1. Growing old; decaying with the lapse of time.
   • 1859, Edgar Allan Poe, “Ulalume”, in The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe, volume 2:

     And now, as the night was senescent / ⁠And star-dials pointed to morn— / ⁠As the star-dials hinted of morn— / At the end of our path a liquescent / ⁠And nebulous lustre was born

   • 1905 March, Joseph Jastrow, “The Natural History of Adolescence”, in Popular Science Monthly, volume 66:

     The history of philosophic opinion itself in interpreted by Dr. Hall in terms of a similar development, in which immature adolescent systems, staid senescent and blasé philosophies have appeared and appealed to their public in direct relation to the status of the culture-periods in which they found origin and favor.

   • 2024 February 3, Ross Douthat, “Only America Can Save the Future”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     Put all of this together and one can envision a world two generations hence in which the richer parts of Europe and the Pacific Rim are senescent walled cities, instability and authoritarian decay predominate across much of Eurasia, and real dynamism is sustained mostly in the parts of America that are growing and building at the moment […]

2. Characteristic of old age.
3. (cytology, of a cell) That ceases to divide.
   • 1919, Boris Sidis, The Source and Aim of Human Progress:

     When such lines and forms of organic development prevail, the individual, as the cell of the body, becomes soon senescent, drifting inevitably into age, decay, and death.

Related terms

• senate
• senator
• senescence
• senile
• senior
• seniority

Translations

growing old

• French: sénescent (fr)
• German: alternd (de)
• Polish: starzejący się
• Swedish: åldrande (sv)

characteristic of old age

• German: Alters- (de)
• Polish: starczy (pl)

Further reading

• “senescent”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “senescent”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• cellular senescence on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• sentences

Latin

Verb

senēscent

1. third-person plural future active indicative of senēscō