degenerate

English

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Degenerate (humans)

Wikipedia

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin dēgenerātus. By surface analysis, de- +‎ generate.

Pronunciation

• (adjective, noun) IPA^(key): /dɪˈdʒɛnəɹɪt/

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  • Audio (Southern England)

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• (verb) IPA^(key): /dɪˈdʒɛnəɹeɪt/

  • Audio (Southern England)

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Adjective

degenerate (comparative more degenerate, superlative most degenerate)

1. (of qualities) Having deteriorated, degraded or fallen from normal, coherent, balanced and desirable to undesirable and typically abnormal.
   • 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 3:

     faint-hearted and degenerate king

   • 2013 March, Harold J. Morowitz, “The Smallest Cell”, in American Scientist‎, volume 101, number 2, archived from the original on 4 January 2017, page 83:

     It is likely that the long evolutionary trajectory of Mycoplasma went from a reductive autotroph to oxidative heterotroph to a cell-wall–defective degenerate parasite. This evolutionary trajectory assumes the simplicity to complexity route of biogenesis, a point of view that is not universally accepted.

2. (of a human or system) Having lost good or desirable qualities.
   • 1726, Jonathan Swift, Verses on St. Patrick's Well:

     As you grew more degenerate and base, I sent you millions of the croaking race

3. (of an encoding or function) Having multiple domain elements correspond to one element of the range.

   The genetic code is degenerate because a single amino acid can be coded by one of several codons.

4. (mathematics) Qualitatively different, usually simpler, than typical objects of its class.

   A degenerate circle, having radius zero, consists of a single point.

   • 1921, A. Hay, “Phase Transformation and Phase Balancing”, in Journal of the Indian Institute of Science, volume 4, page 102:

     We now apply the geometrical construction explained in the appendix to the degenerate triangle ABC.

5. (mathematics, of an eigenvalue) Having multiple different (linearly independent) eigenvectors.
6. (physics) Having the same quantum energy level.
7. (of a gambler) Addictive or compulsive.
   • 1918, Alexander Corkey, The Vision of Joy, or When "Billy" Sunday Came to Town:

     If my boy is not tempted to gamble at a fashionable card party he will never learn from the degenerate, blackleg gamblers in the joint.

   • 2013, Artie Lange, Crash and Burn:

     What are the odds that an alcoholic and degenerate gambler with no money management siills could survive in a city that ate addicts for lunch and dreams for dinner?

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

degenerate (plural degenerates)

1. One who is degenerate, who has fallen from previous stature; an immoral or corrupt person.

   In the cult of degenerates, acts of decency, kindness and modesty could be seen as acts of apostasy.

Translations

Verb

degenerate (third-person singular simple present degenerates, present participle degenerating, simple past and past participle degenerated)

1. (intransitive) To lose good or desirable qualities.

   His condition continued to degenerate even after admission to hospital.

   • 1870, Shirley Hibberd, Rustic Adornments for Homes of Taste, page 170:

     Another bird quickly learned to imitate the song of a canary that was mated with it, but as the parrakeet improved in the performance the canary degenerated, and came at last to mingle the other bird's harsh chitterings with its own proper music.

2. (transitive) To cause to lose good or desirable qualities.

Derived terms

• degeneration

Related terms

• regenerate (verb), ungenerate (verb)

Translations

Further reading

• “degenerate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “degenerate”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Italian

Etymology 1

Adjective

degenerate

1. feminine plural of degenerato

Participle

degenerate f pl

1. feminine plural of degenerato

Etymology 2

Noun

degenerate f

1. plural of degenerata

Etymology 3

Verb

degenerate

1. inflection of degenerare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /deː.ɡe.neˈraː.te/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /de.d͡ʒe.neˈra.te/,

Verb

dēgenerāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of dēgenerō

Spanish

Verb

degenerate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of degenerar combined with te