It’s a rare word confusion anile vs senile, except in crossword puzzles (Skillin, 449).
I must confess it’s the first I ever heard of anile. It is a simple enough distinction, but not much used these days, as we apply senile to either sex.
Technically, anile is applied to women, while senile had been applied only to men.
Word Confusions . . .
. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.
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| Anile | Senile |
|---|---|
The Old Woman is an oil-on-canvas portrait by Giorgione that was photographed by Didier Descouens and is under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. — Old women are anile. |
Old Man, Possibly a Portrait of Jan Amos Comenius, 1665, is an oil-on-canvas portrait by Rembrandt and is Hakjosef‘s own work of photography and is under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. — Old men are senile. |
| Part of Grammar: | |
| Adjective | Adjective |
Characteristic of a crone or a feeble old woman
The feminine counterpart of senile, which originally referred only to old men Fearful and overly cautious |
[Of a person] Having or showing the weaknesses or diseases of old age, especially a loss of mental faculties
[Often offensive] Exhibiting the deterioration in mind and body often accompanying old age
Approaching the end of a geologic cycle of erosion |
| Examples: | |
| “Dr. Wittman, too, was passing over the same ground trodden by Bonaparte in his Syrian expedition, and had an ample opportunity of inquiring its probable object, and the probably success which (but for the heroic defense of Acre), might have attended it; he was on the theatre of Bonaparte’s imputed crimes, as well as his notorious defeat; and might have brought us back, not anile conjecture, but sound evidence of events which must determine his character, who may determine our fate” (Smith, 248–249).
“Romanticism, so sanguine and so venturous in its revolutionary youth, grew anile in its premature decrepitude; mumbled its credos; cursed its heretics — and died.” (Vaughan, 347). I see nothing anile in Aunty Bellam’s gait; she gallivants around town as agile as she was twenty years ago. Don’t act so anile, grandma; climb on up to our tree house. |
He’s suffering from senile decay.
She couldn’t cope with her senile husband. Trump regularly claimed during the 2020 campaign that Biden was senile. The family needed to hire a caregiver for their senile father. “This gap is addressed through in situ measurements and numerical modeling to evaluate wave, circulation, and sediment dynamics for a senile, low-relief barrier reef” (Torres-Garcia). |
| Derivatives: | |
| Adverb: anilely Noun: anility |
Adverb: senilely Noun: senility |
| History of the Word: | |
| From the French version of the Latin anilis meaning old womanly, an adjective built on anus meaning ring, ring-like object, old woman. How the sense of this word wandered from ring to woman apparently has something to do with marriage rather than the word’s other meaning. | Mid-17th century from the French sénile or the Latin senilis, from senex meaning old man. |
C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!
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AlphaDictionary: anile
“Anile vs Senile – What’s the Difference?.” WikiDiff. n.d. Accessed 16 Sept 2023. <https://wikidiff.com/anile/senile>.
Apple Dictionary.com
Skillin, Marjorie E., Robert M. Gay, and other authorities. Words into Type. 3rd ed. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc: 1974. <https://amzn.to/3YCK74z&g; Print.
Smith, Sydney. “Wittman’s Travels”. The Works of Sydney Smith. Originally published 1844. Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1850. <https://amzn.to/465ofSW>. Print.
Torres-Garcia, Legna M., P. Soupy Dalyander, Joseph W. Long, David G. Zawada, Kimberly K. Yates, Christopher Moore, and Maitane Olabarrieta. “Hydrodynamics and Sediment Mobility Processes Over a Degraded Senile Coral Reef.” JGR Oceans. Advancing Earth and Space Sciences. 29 May 2019. Accessed 16 Sept 2023. DOI:<https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JC013892Citations>. <https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2018JC013892>.
Vaughan, Robert Alfred. Hours with the Mystics: A Contribution to the History of Religious Opinion. Originally published 1856. Good Press, 2023. <https://amzn.to/3ZmzJiF>. Ebook.
Pinterest Photo Credits
Old Man and Woman on Porch by Doris Ullman is under the Public Domain Mark 1.0 license, via Picryl and courtesy of the Library of Congress.
