Affected by rot or decay; having evidence of wood rot or deterioration.
Origin uncertain; possibly from Scottish dialect or related to 'dote' or words meaning decay; may be influenced by words like 'dotard' or decaying conditions.
Though 'doty' is quite rare in modern English, it survives in technical contexts like carpentry and forestry, where precise vocabulary for types of wood damage matters—it shows how specialized fields maintain obscure words that would otherwise disappear.
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