Site name and logo

Macilent

Pronounced /ˈmæsɪlənt/Help with pronunciation

This word was marked as rare in dictionaries a century ago and has become even more so since, though it retains a niche in elevated or pretentious prose in the sense of something lean, shrivelled, or excessively thin. It’s from Latin macilentus, lean.

In 1851 a writer evoked with it a gaunt victim of tuberculosis: “of whom I could recollect nothing but a macilent figure, stretched upon a sofa and scarcely breathing”.

It can also have a figurative sense that refers to poor-quality or inferior writing. A reviewer of Britney Spears’s album In the Zone in 2003 described it as “Britney’s most personal statement. Because it’s as lost and macilent and alluring and eager to please and disturbingly empty-eyed as she is.”

This is a slightly older example in a similarly figurative vein:

Had no schoolmaster in moments of heroic enthusiasm attempted to pound a few rules of rhetoric through my incrassate skull? Had I never heard of taste? Was the word “style” outside my macilent vocabulary?

Greener Than You Think, by Ward Moore, 1947.

Support this website and keep it available!

There are no adverts on this site. I rely on the kindness of visitors to pay the running costs. Donate via PayPal by selecting your currency from the list and clicking Donate. Specify the amount you wish to give on the PayPal site.

Copyright © Michael Quinion, 1996–. All rights reserved.

Page created 20 Nov 2004