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second childhood. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
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English
Pronunciation
Noun
second childhood (plural second childhoods)
- (idiomatic) The period or state of cognitive decline of an elderly person, characterized by childlike judgment and behavior.
- Synonyms: dotage, senile dementia, senescence, senility
1549, Hugh Latimer, The seconde sermon of Maister Hughe Latimer which he preached before the Kynges Maiestie in his graces palayce at Westminster, ye xv. day of Marche , M.ccccc.xlix:King David being in his childhood, an old man, in his second childhood, for all old men are twice children, as the proverb is, Senex bis puer.
1951 July 16, “Second Prime”, in Time, archived from the original on 2010-11-23:Old age is not always second childhood, says he. "There is often, instead, a second prime."
- (idiomatic) A childlike state in any adult, resulting from mental illness, trauma, or other conditions.
- Synonym: dementia
1838, [Edgar Allan Poe], chapter XI, in The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. , New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, , →OCLC, page 102:For myself, although at the commencement of the voyage I had been in bad health, and was at all times of a delicate constitution, I suffered less than any of us, being much less reduced in frame, and retaining my powers of mind in a surprising degree, while the rest were completely prostrated in intellect, and seemed to be brought to a species of second childhood, generally simpering in their expressions, with idiotic smiles, and uttering the most absurd platitudes.
1891, J[ames] M[atthew] Barrie, chapter XIII, in The Little Minister. , volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London, Paris: Cassell and Company, , →OCLC:But take care of yourself; a man's second childhood begins when a woman gets hold of him.
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