the.com/infirmity
The body sending a formal resignation letter it never lets you accept.
means A physical or mental weakness or ailment, especially one that comes with age or illness.
from From Latin infirmitas, built from in- ('not') plus firmus ('strong, firm') — the same firmus that gives us 'firm' and 'affirm.' So an infirmity is literally an 'unfirmness,' a loss of the sturdy steadiness the body is supposed to have. It passed into English through Old French around the medieval period, carrying that same sense of structural failure — not broken outright, just no longer solid.
- origin
- latin for not firm
- legal use
- once excused you from jury duty
- distinction
- a weakness, not necessarily a disease
- company it keeps
- usually paired with age, rarely with youth