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In law, desuetude (/ d ɪ ˈ sj uː ɪ tj uː d, ˈ d ɛ s w ɪ-/; from French désuétude, from Latin desuetudo 'outdated, no longer custom') is a doctrine that causes statutes, similar legislation, or legal principles to lapse and become unenforceable by a long habit of non-enforcement or lapse of time.
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first edition in 1884, traces the historical development of the English language, providing a comprehensive resource to ...
An idiom is a common word or phrase with a figurative, non-literal meaning that is understood culturally and differs from what its composite words' denotations would suggest; i.e. the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words (although some idioms do retain their literal meanings – see the example "kick the bucket" below).
Words with specific British English meanings that have different meanings in American and/or additional meanings common to both languages (e.g. pants, cot) are to be found at List of words having different meanings in American and British English. When such words are herein used or referenced, they are marked with the flag [DM] (different meaning).
The Latin-derived words noble and gentle (in its original English meaning of 'noble') were both borrowed into English around 1230. Compare with German edel, Dutch edel, English athel. ge-: a prefix used extensively in Old English, originally meaning 'with', but later gaining other usages, such as being used grammatically for the perfect tense.
The English language, along with other European ones, adopted the word and used it as similar meaning, slow and delayed. In English, the word "to decelerate " would become a more common term than "to retard", while in others like French [ 9 ] or Catalan, [ 10 ] retard is still in common usage to mean 'delay' ( tard ).
In general English usage, the verb "to deprecate" means "to express disapproval of (something)". It derives from the Latin deponent verb deprecari, meaning "to ward off (a disaster) by prayer". An early documented usage of "deprecate" in this sense is in Usenet posts in 1984, referring to obsolete features in 4.2BSD and the C programming ...
A fossil word is a word that is broadly obsolete but remains in current use due to its presence within an idiom or phrase. [1] [2] An example for a word sense is 'ado' in 'much ado'.