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Effete vs Depauperate - What's the difference?

effete | depauperate |

As adjectives the difference between effete and depauperate

is that effete is (label) of substances, quantities etc: exhausted, spent, worn-out while depauperate is (botany|of a plant etc) having stunted growth.

As a verb depauperate is

to impoverish.

effete

English

Alternative forms

*

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • (label) Of substances, quantities etc: exhausted, spent, worn-out.
  • *, II.4.1.v:
    • Nature is not effÅ“te , as he saith, or so lavish, to bestow all her gifts upon an age, but hath reserved some for posterity, to shew her power, that she is still the same, and not old or consumed.
  • Of people: lacking strength or vitality; feeble, powerless, impotent.
  • *
    • Amid the effete monarchies and princedoms of feudal Europe, morally and materially exhausted by the Thirty Years' War, the only hope of resistance to France lay in the little Republic of merchants, Holland.
  • Decadent, weak through self-indulgence.
  • Effeminate.
  • *
    • a good-humored, effete boy brought up by maiden aunts.

    Derived terms

    * effetely * effeteness

    depauperate

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (botany, of a plant etc) Having stunted growth.
    • (Gray)
  • Impoverished.
  • Having a limited biodiversity.
  • * 2009, (August 2009), page 35,
    • "...because of Kamchatka's isolation from mainland river systems, its streams are relatively depauperate of other fresh water fish, leaving Oncorhynchus species to face few competitors and predators."

    Verb

    (depauperat)
  • To impoverish.
  • * Mortimer
    • Liming does not depauperate ; the ground will last long, and bear large grain.
  • * Jeremy Taylor
    • Humility of mind which depauperates the spirit.
  • To stunt the growth of.
    • ----