Make Your Point > Archived Issues > EMACIATE
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pronounce
EMACIATE:
Say it "ih MAY she yate."
To hear it, click here.
connect this word to others:
To be emaciated is to be weakened, thinned, malnourished, skeletal, cad____ous--in other words, deathly skinny, corpse-like.
Could you recall that last synonym?
(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)
definition:
In Latin, macer means "thin," and macies means "leanness." Combine macies with the prefix "e-," meaning "out or completely," and you get the English word "emaciate," which we've been using since the 1600s.
To emaciate people or things is to make them waste away: to make them too thin or too lean, in an unhealthy way.
grammatical bits:
Part of speech:
Verb, usually the transitive kind ("The disease emaciated her") but sometimes the intransitive kind ("She emaciated").
Other forms:
Emaciated, emaciating, emaciation.
how to use it:
Pick the serious, somewhat rare word "emaciate" to describe things that make people frail, sickly, and way too thin.
Often, it's some disease or other serious hardship, like famine or imprisonment, that emaciates people. "After the war, he came home emaciated."
That's generally how we use the word, quite literally, to talk about emaciated human or animal bodies. But we can also get figurative and talk about emaciated minds, budgets, economies, countries, hopes, ambitions, etc.
examples:
"If you look at their photos, these guys are emaciated, they have tattoos, and they look wired. Any money they had, they would pool and buy cheap wine and maybe they would have French fries or something."
— Mike Faist, as quoted by Elisabeth Vincentelli, New York Times, 27 May 2021
"Before midnight he returned with a few strings of dried meat, several bags of rice, corn with weevils, and some emaciated bunches of bananas."
— Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude, 1967
"Most leaders aren't happy when the day is done or their career is done... The very same hunger that drives them to do big things leaves them starved and emotionally emaciated in the end."
— Rob Asghar, Forbes, 28 April 2015
has this page helped you understand "emaciate"?
study it:
Explain the meaning of "emaciate" without saying "attenuate" or "sap."
try it out:
Let's get figurative!
Fill in the blanks: "(Some building, neighborhood, project, program, or career) has good bones, but it's emaciated. To return to health, it needs _____."
Example: "That Victorian house with all the spiderwebs and hideous carpet has good bones, but it's emaciated. To return to health, it needs a big-budget renovation."
before you review, play:
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
Our game for this month: MYP Anagrams!
Rearrange the letters in the given word to form a word we've studied before. For example, if I give you THREAD, you give me DEARTH. To see the answer, scroll all the way down.
Try this one today:
Rearrange the letters in LATEX to make a verb.
To peek at the clues, highlight the hidden white text below.
The definition is… to lift things up to a higher level of power, respect, or dignity--often with words of praise.
The first letter is… E.
review this word:
A. SHARP.
B. ROBUST.
C. DISCPLINED.
2.
The novelist J. K. Rowling invented "the vampire Sanguini, who was tall and emaciated"--an amusing choice of words, considering "sanguine" can mean "_____," while "emaciated" means "_____."
A. bloodthirsty and brutal .. tender and gentle
B. cheerful and vigorous, as if blessed with chubby, rosy cheeks .. thin and weak, as if having wasted away
C. overfed and self-indulgent, like a professional food critic .. lanky yet muscular, like a professional basketball player
a final word:
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
From my blog:
On vocabulary...
36 ways to study words.
Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
How to improve any sentence.
How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.
From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.
A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
To be emaciated is to be weakened, thinned, malnourished, skeletal, cad____ous--in other words, deathly skinny, corpse-like.
In Latin, macer means "thin," and macies means "leanness." Combine macies with the prefix "e-," meaning "out or completely," and you get the English word "emaciate," which we've been using since the 1600s.
Part of speech:
Pick the serious, somewhat rare word "emaciate" to describe things that make people frail, sickly, and way too thin.
"If you look at their photos, these guys are emaciated, they have tattoos, and they look wired. Any money they had, they would pool and buy cheap wine and maybe they would have French fries or something."
Explain the meaning of "emaciate" without saying "attenuate" or "sap."
Let's get figurative!
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. |