different between feeble vs archaic

English

Etymology

From Middle English feble, from Anglo-Norman feble (“weak, feeble”) (compare French faible), from Latin fl?bilis (“tearful, mournful, lamentable”). Doublet of foible.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?fi?b?l/
• Rhymes: -i?b?l

Adjective

feeble (comparative feebler, superlative feeblest)

1. Deficient in physical strength

   Though she appeared old and feeble, she could still throw a ball.
2. Lacking force, vigor, or efficiency in action or expression; faint.

   That was a feeble excuse for an example.

Synonyms

• (physically weak): weak, infirm, debilitated
• (wanting force, vigor or efficiency): faint

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

feeble (third-person singular simple present feebles, present participle feebling, simple past and past participle feebled)

1. (obsolete) To make feeble; to enfeeble.

References

• feeble in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• feeble in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• beflee

Middle English

Adjective

feeble

1. Alternative form of feble

English

Alternative forms

• archæic (old-fashioned)
• archaeic (rare or old-fashioned)
• archaïc
• archaick (obsolete)

Etymology

From archaism (“ancient or obsolete phrase or expression”) or from French archaïque, ultimately from Ancient Greek ???????? (arkhaïkós, “old-fashioned”), from ??????? (arkhaîos, “from the beginning, antiquated, ancient, old”), from ???? (arkh?, “beginning, origin”), from ???? (árkh?, “I am first”), from ???? (árkh?, “I begin”), from Proto-Indo-European *h?erg?- (“to begin, rule, command”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??.?ke?.?k/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??.?ke?.?k/

Noun

archaic (plural archaics)

1. (archaeology, US, usually capitalized) A general term for the prehistoric period intermediate between the earliest period (‘Paleo-Indian’, ‘Paleo-American’, ‘American?paleolithic’, &c.) of human presence in the Western Hemisphere, and the most recent prehistoric period (‘Woodland’, etc.).
   • 1958, Wiley, Gordon R., and Philip Phillips, Method and Theory in American Archaeology, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, page #107:

     [...] Archaic Stage [...] the stage of migratory hunting and gathering cultures continuing into environmental conditions approximately those of the present.

2. (paleoanthropology) (A member of) an archaic variety of Homo sapiens.
   • 2009, The Human Lineage, page 432:

     [...] prefer the third explanation for the advanced-looking features of Neandertals (Chapter 7) and the Ngandong hominins (Chapter 6), but they have had little to say about the post-Erectine archaics from China.

Adjective

archaic (comparative more archaic, superlative most archaic)

1. Of or characterized by antiquity; old-fashioned, quaint, antiquated.
2. (of words) No longer in ordinary use, though still used occasionally to give a sense of antiquity.
3. (archaeology) Belonging to the archaic period

Synonyms

• (old-fashioned): dated, obsolete, old fashioned; see also Thesaurus:obsolete

Derived terms

• archaically, archaism, archaicy

Related terms

Translations

References

• archaic in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• William Dwight Whitney and Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1914) , “archaic”, in The Century Dictionary: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, volume I (A–C), revised edition, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., OCLC 1078064371.
• The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford University Press, 1998

Anagrams

• arachic