Lacking in vigor, force, or effectiveness; exhausted of vitality or strength. Often describes something that has become weak or decadent through overrefinement or lack of purpose.
From Latin 'effetus' meaning 'worn out by bearing young,' from 'ex-' (out) + 'fetus' (offspring). Originally referred to animals or land exhausted from reproduction, later extended to mean generally depleted or weakened.
Think of 'effete' as 'effect-less' — something so refined or overused that it has lost all its power to make an impact. Like a once-sharp sword that's been polished so much it can't cut butter anymore.
Effete originally meant worn out or exhausted, but by the 19th–20th century it acquired coded associations with delicate, decadent, or stereotypically feminine weakness, particularly used to dismiss intellectuals and progressive men as unmanly.
Avoid for human criticism; when describing genuine exhaustion of resources, specify the concrete depletion rather than relying on gendered implications of weakness.
["exhausted","depleted","worn out","spent"]
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