Crossword Dictionary
effete
decadent, effete - a
marked by excessive self-indulgence and moral decay; "a decadent life of excessive money and no sense of responsibility"; "a group of effete self-professed intellectuals"
synonyms
decadent, decayed, degenerate, overripe, washed-up
in a sentence
effete members of the aristocracy
the soft, effete society that marked the final years of the Roman empire
etymology
1620s, "functionless as a result of age or exhaustion," from Latin effetus (usually in fem. effeta) "exhausted, unproductive, worn out (with bearing offspring), past bearing," literally "that has given birth," from a lost verb, *efferi, from assimilated form of ex "out" (see ex-) + fetus "childbearing, offspring" (see fetus). Figurative use is earliest in English; literal use is rare. Sense of "intellectually or morally exhausted" (1790) led to that of "decadent, effeminate" (by 1850s).