dot·age

[doh-tij]
noun
1.
a decline of mental faculties, especially as associated with old age; senility.
2.
excessive fondness; foolish affection.

Origin:
1300–50; Middle English; see dote, -age

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source Link To dotage
Collins
World English Dictionary
dotage (ˈdəʊtɪdʒ) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
n
1.  feebleness of mind, esp as a result of old age
2.  foolish infatuation
 
[C14: from dote + -age]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
00:10
Dotage is always a great word to know.
So is quincunx. Does it mean:
an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
Etymonline
Word Origin & History

dotage
c.1300, from dote + -age. Originally of all sorts of mental impairment, not just that resulting from old age.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source
American Heritage
Medical Dictionary

dotage dot·age (dō'tĭj)
n.
The loss of previously intact mental powers; senility. Also called anility.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Cite This Source
Example sentences
Most rely on teaching, day jobs or rich spouses in their dotage.
It would be sad injustice, the reader must understand, to represent all my
  excellent old friends as in their dotage.
But it is also a symptom of mild paranoia about whether these firms can in
  their dotage still deliver perky growth.
They didn't react in the same way to lionesses, so it wasn't that they were
  becoming generally more panicky in their dotage.
Synonyms
Copyright © 2013 Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
  • Please Login or Sign Up to use the Recent Searches feature
FAVORITES
RECENT