1. The process or condition of worsening or degenerating. 2.Linguistics The process by which the meaning of a word becomes negative or less elevated over a period of time, as silly, which formerly meant “deserving sympathy, helpless or simple,” has come to mean “showing a lack of good sense, frivolous.”
ETYMOLOGY:
Medieval Latin pirti, pirtin-, from Late Latin pirtus, past participle of pirre, to make worse, from Latin pior, worse. See ped- in Appendix I.
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