Extenuation vs Attenuate - What's the difference?

extenuation | attenuate |

As a noun extenuation

is extenuation; exhaustion.

As a verb attenuate is

to reduce in size, force, value, amount, or degree.

As an adjective attenuate is

(botany|of leaves) gradually tapering into a petiole-like extension toward the base.

extenuation

English

Alternative forms

Noun

# The action or .

#* 1576 , Baker, Jewell of Health , page 171 a:

This mightily helpeth the extenuation of members.

#* 1655 , Culpepper, Riverius , i.v.19:

A yong man…had an extenuation for want of nourishment in his Limbs.

#* 1707 , Floyer, Physic. Pulse-Watch , page 183:

Galen commends tepid Baths for…curing all Extenuations .

#* 1781 October 27th, Johnson, Let. Mrs. Thrale :

The extenuation is her only bad symptom.

#* 1825 , Scott, Betrothed , xxx:

The female…exhibited…some symptoms of extenuation .

#* 1828 , Biog.'' in ''Ann. Reg. , page 474/2:

Some pallid from extenuation .

# .

#* 1655–60 , Stanley, Hist. Philos. (1701), page 64/2:

Winds proceed from extenuation of the Air, by the Sun.

# (lb) The action or process of making ; an instance of this.

#* 1619 , Donne, Serm. xiv, page 140:

All Dilatation is some degree of Extenuation .

#* 1665 , Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (1677), page 186:

The Sea is the same at all seasons; what it gets by Rivers and showers, losing by exhalations and extenuations through the excessive heats…within the Torrid Zone.

#* 1777 , Priestley, Matt. & Spir. (1782), volume I, chapter xix, page 229:

Gregory the Great…says that God penetrates everything without extenuation .

# (lb) The action of making ).

#* 1542–3 , Act'' 34–5 ''Hen. VIII , c. 18:

The saide citie is much decaid…not a little to the extenuacion of that part of this realme.

#* 1596 , Shaks., , act III, scene ii, 22:

Such extenuation let me begge, As in reproofe of many Tales deuis’d…I may…Finde pardon on my true submission.

#* 1654 , H. L’Estrange, Chas. I (1655), page 1:

The gallantry of Henry’s heroique spirit tended somewhat to the…extenuation of Charles his glory.

#* 1707 , Atterbury, Serm. v. (1723), volume II, page 159:

What Deeds of Charity we have to alledge in Extenuation of our Punishment.

# The action of .

#* 1614 , Bp. Hall, Recoll. Treat. , page 209:

Sometimes…wee humble ourselves lower than there is cause…And no lesse well doth God take these submisse extenuations of our selves.

#* 1621 , Burton, Anat. Mel. , ii.i.iv.ii.228:

Through their…extenuation [of their grievance], wretchedness and peevishness they undo themselves.

#* 1722 , De Foe, Plague (1840), page 6:

Many died of it every day, so that now all our extenuations abated.

#* 1859 , Mill, Liberty ii. (1865), page 13/2:

The utmost they allow is an extenuation of its absolute necessity.

#* 1873 , A.V.S. Sligo (translator), R.F. Calixte (author), The Life of the Venerable (Anna Maria Taigi) , page 303:

The simple matter-of-fact style of the narrative is, from its unobtrusive character, more adapted for spiritual reading than the views and generalisations, and prologetic extenuations of more recent biographers.

## of something.

##* 1589 , Puttenham, Eng. Poesie iii. xix. (Arb.), page 227:

We call him the Disabler or figure of Extenuation .

##* 1657 , J. Smith, Myst. Rhet. , page 56:

When for extenuation sake we use a lighter and more easie word or terme then the matter requires.

##* 1706 , in Phillips

##* 1823 , in'' Crabb, ''Technol. Dict.

# The action of .

#* 1651 , Hobbes, Leviath. , ii., xxvii., page 156:

Extenuation , by which the Crime, that seemed great, is made lesse.

#* ante'' 1674 , Clarendon, ''Surv. Leviath. (1676), page 180:

He…was to find excuses and extenuations for sins.

#* 1712 , Addison, Spect. , ? 297, ¶ 1:

Whatever may be said for the Extenuation of such Defects.

#* 1750 , Johnson, Rambler , ? 39, ¶ 7:

It may be urged, in extenuation of this crime…that [etc.].

#* ante'' 1832 , Bentham, ''Wks. (1843), volume I, page 174:

The differences of castes…furnish a copious stock of extenuations …to different classes of offences.

#* 1839 , Mackintosh, Eth. Philos. , Wks. 1846, volume I, page 28:

In extenuation of a noble error.

# .

#* 1881 May, G.W. Cable in Scribner’s Mag. , page 23:

They were clad in silken extenuations from the throat to the feet.

#* 1883 September 12th, Pall Mall G. , page 2/2:

One side wore…extenuations of a…green colour.

Derived terms

References

* “Extenuation” listed on page 460/2–3] of § 2 (E, ed. (Henry Bradley)) of volume III (D–E, 1897) of [[w:Oxford English Dictionary, A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles] (1st ed.)

attenuate

English

Verb

(attenuat)

To reduce in size, force, value, amount, or degree.

* 1874 , , Far From the Madding Crowd , ch. 40:

A manor-house clock from the far depths of shadow struck the hour, one, in a small, attenuated tone.

To make thinner, as by physically reshaping, starving, or decaying.

* 1899 , , His New Mittens , ch. 4:

Clumps of attenuated turkeys were suspended here and there.

* 1906 , , The Malefactor , ch. 1:

Lovell, wan and hollow-eyed, his arm in a sling, his once burly frame gaunt and attenuated with disease, nodded.

To weaken.

* Coleridge

The attention attenuates as its sphere contracts.

* Sir F. Palgrave

We may reject and reject till we attenuate history into sapless meagreness.

To rarefy.

* 1901 , , The First Men in the Moon , ch. 23:

"It speedily became apparent that the entire strangeness of our circumstances and surroundings—great loss of weight, attenuated but highly oxygenated air, consequent exaggeration of the results of muscular effort, rapid development of weird plants from obscure spores, lurid sky—was exciting my companion unduly."

(medicine) To reduce the virulence of a bacteria or virus.

(electronics) To reduce the amplitude of an electrical signal.

Antonyms

* amplify (electronics)

Derived terms

* attenuation * attenuable

Adjective

(en adjective)

(botany, of leaves) Gradually tapering into a petiole-like extension toward the base.

----