dotard
1
9.9
- noun
- /ˈdoʊtərd/
- Offensive
:
carcamal
- Elsewhere, however, where he reverts to his habit of singling out types, the needy traveller, the young enthusiast, the hind, the dotard, and others like them attract as many instances again.
- mentally deranged dotard
- deranged dotard
- U.S. dotard
Examples
-
Dotard!
-
And you informally send a reactionary dotard to...
-
I speak not like a dotard nor a fool.
-
A great deal has changed since that dotard Walsingham died.
Fiction book (1993) -
"Mom..." This was said with such a tone of forbearance, as to a dotard, that Marlene shrugged and put her wallet away.
Fiction book (2001) -
If so, then I'm admittedly the dotard of these objects I've collected from out of the midden dump of time, and set in a splendid arrested childhood on my shelves.
Fiction book (1993) -
As he aged, his friends began to see him as a dotard, often forgetting simple things.
-
The elderly gentleman was often dismissed as a dotard due to his frequent confusion.
-
Many people view their grandparents as dotards when they struggle to remember recent events.
Synonyms
175
1.0
A person who is much older than most adults
3
7.6
A person who is clearly past middle age
Antonyms
How Senile
Surface Forms
Morphology
dotard = dot (opaque) = dot + ard
The noun is formed from 'dot' + '-ard', but the sense of 'dot' meaning 'be senile' is archaic and uncommon, so learners cannot reliably derive the meaning.
Etymology
Dotard comes from the verb dote, which once meant 'to be foolish or weak in the mind', plus the ending -ard, as in drunkard, meaning 'a person who does something'. So a dotard is literally 'a person who dotes', which helps explain why it now means an old person whose mental powers have declined.