![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
degringolade
Jun. 7th, 2021 08:40 amdegringolade (dey-gran-gaw-LAD, dey-grang-guh-LAHD) - n., a rapid decline or deterioration.
Of a circumstance, condition, or strength -- but apparently not health? I'm unclear on that. I'm not very familiar with this word, by which I mean I had the vague idea that it was some sort of article of 19th century women's clothing, which is way, way off. In my very weak defense, this is uncommon in American English, being used more in British English. It's from French, of course, adopted in the early 1880s, and it is still sometimes spelled dégringolade -- from dégringoler, to tumble down, but that physical sense is absent in English.
---L.
Of a circumstance, condition, or strength -- but apparently not health? I'm unclear on that. I'm not very familiar with this word, by which I mean I had the vague idea that it was some sort of article of 19th century women's clothing, which is way, way off. In my very weak defense, this is uncommon in American English, being used more in British English. It's from French, of course, adopted in the early 1880s, and it is still sometimes spelled dégringolade -- from dégringoler, to tumble down, but that physical sense is absent in English.
---L.
