degenerate
adjective
- degraded or reduced in quality
- duplication (scientific)
verb
- to degrade or reduce in quality, pass from a higher to a lower type or condition, become morally or intellectually bad or worse, deteriorate
noun
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L319222 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /dɪˈd͡ʒɛnəɹɪt/ / /dɪˈd͡ʒɛnəɹeɪt/
adj
Etymology: Learned borrowing from Latin dēgenerātus. See -ate (adjective-forming suffix) for more.
- Having deteriorated, degraded or fallen from normal, coherent, balanced and desirable to undesirable and typically abnormal.
- Having lost good or desirable qualities; hence also having bad character or habits, base, immoral, corrupt.
“faint-hearted and degenerate king”
“But what can Cato do Againſt a World, a baſe degenerate World, That courts the Yoke, and bows the Neck to Cæſar?”
- Having lost functionality in general.
“It is likely that the long evolutionary trajectory of Mycoplasma went from a reductive autotroph to oxidative heterotroph to a cell-wall–defective degenerate parasite. This evolutionary trajectory assumes the simplicity to complexity route of biogenesis, a point of view that is not universally accepted.”
- Having multiple domain elements correspond to one element of the range.
“The genetic code is degenerate because a single amino acid can be coded by one of several codons.”
- Qualitatively different, usually simpler, than typical objects of its class.
“A degenerate circle, having radius zero, consists of a single point.”
“We now apply the geometrical construction explained in the appendix to the degenerate triangle ABC.”
- Having multiple different (linearly independent) eigenvectors.
- Having the same quantum energy level.
noun
Etymology: From a substantivation of the above adjective, see -ate (noun-forming suffix) for more. Compare French dégénéré.
- One who is degenerate, who has fallen from previous stature; an immoral or corrupt person.
“In the cult of degenerates, acts of decency, kindness and modesty could be seen as acts of apostasy.”
“The undeveloped or mysterically confused thought which exists in savages is fully exemplified in the childish or crazy atavistic anthropomorphism and symbolism so prevalent among degenerates.”
verb
Etymology: From Latin degenerō + -ate (verb-forming suffix). Compare Italian degenerare, French dégénérer (and its older (and now obsolete) English cognate from Middle French, degener). By surface analysis, de- + generate.
- To lose good or desirable qualities.
“His condition continued to degenerate even after admission to hospital.”
“Another bird quickly learned to imitate the song of a canary that was mated with it, but as the parrakeet improved in the performance the canary degenerated, and came at last to mingle the other bird's harsh chitterings with its own proper music.”
- To cause to lose good or desirable qualities.