the.com/dotage
The flattering word that swears senility is just enthusiasm with extra years.
means The period of feeble-minded old age, when memory and judgment fade — or, more affectionately, doting affection lavished on someone.
from From the Middle English 'doten,' meaning to behave foolishly or be silly — the same root that gives us 'dote.' So 'dotage' and 'doting' are siblings: one means to fuss adoringly over someone, the other to slide into the foolishness of advanced age. The shared thread is the loosening of sense, whether by love or by years.
- root
- From medieval 'doten,' to be foolish or simple
- sibling
- Shares ancestry with 'dotard,' an insult presidents trade
- affection twist
- 'Dote on' means love so hard it borders on silly
- legal echo
- Old courts cited dotage to void elders' contracts
ronald reagan's presidency — u.s. president whose cognitive decline in second term (1985-1989) was documented by aides and later diagnosed as alzheimer's disease
king george iii's rule — british monarch whose mental illness episodes (1788-1789) caused constitutional crisis, though likely porphyria rather than senility