the.com/deterioration
Entropy filing a progress report.
means A gradual worsening or decline in quality, condition, or value over time.
from From Late Latin 'deteriorare,' meaning to make worse, built on 'deterior' meaning 'worse' — itself a comparative form related to 'de-' (down, away). The word entered English around the 17th century through French 'détérioration,' carrying that same sense of things sliding downward from a better state.
- no positive form
- deterior means worse, with no base word for good
- first english use
- appeared in the 1600s describing moral decline, not objects
- engineering term
- used precisely to measure material failure rates over time
- opposite word
- amelioration, from Latin melior, meaning better