etiolate means etiolated. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 79 out of 100.
etiolate is pronounced /ˈiːti.əleɪt/.
Why “etiolate” is a great word
ETIOLATE — [Verb/Adjective] To make pale, spindly, and weak by depriving of light; to be in such a blanched and weakened state. From French étioler (to blanch), from Norman French étieuler, ultimately from Old French estuble (stubble), from Latin stipula (straw, stubble). First attested in English in the late 18th century (1791). Unlike "bleach," which suggests a chemical or solar whitening, or "weaken," a broad diminishment of strength, "etiolate" specifies a languishing pallor and frailty born of light starvation. It is the spectral yellow of celery stalks forced in darkness, the translucent, grasping fingers of a potato sprout in a cellar, and the wan complexion of a scholar who has wintered too long indoors—a portrait of life persisting, but just barely, having traded vigor for mere survival.
verb
- To make pale through lack of light, especially of a plant.
- To make pale and sickly-looking.“She was a very lovely woman in her late thirties, in a silk dress of screaming scarlet that would have etiolated a white woman to bled veal.”
- To become pale or blanched.