different between effete vs bootless

English

Alternative forms

• effœte (obsolete)

Etymology

From Latin eff?tus (“exhausted”, literally “that has given birth”), 1620s.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??fi?t/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??fit/
  • Rhymes: -i?t

Adjective

effete (comparative more effete, superlative most effete)

1. (obsolete) Of substances, quantities etc: exhausted, spent, worn-out.
2. Lacking strength or vitality; feeble, powerless, impotent.
3. Decadent, weak through self-indulgence.
4. (of a person) Affected, overrefined

Derived terms

• effetely
• effeteness

Translations

References

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ef?fe?.te/, [?f?fe?t??]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ef?fe.te/, [?f?f??t??]

Adjective

eff?te

1. vocative masculine singular of eff?tus

English

Etymology 1

From boot +? -less.

Adjective

bootless (not comparable)

1. Without boots.

Etymology 2

From Middle English boteles, botles, from Old English b?tl?as; equivalent to boot (“profit; use; behoof”) +? -less. Doublet of botleas.

Alternative forms

• boteless

Adjective

bootless (comparative more bootless, superlative most bootless)

1. Profitless; pointless; unavailing.
   • 1592–1609, William Shakespeare, Sonnet XXIX:

     When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes, / I all alone beweep my outcast state / And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries

Synonyms

• fruitless

Derived terms

• bootlessly
• bootlessness

Translations