英和和英

語源

Unadapted borrowing from French décadence, from Medieval Latin decadentia (“act of decaying, decay”), from Latin *decadens (“decaying”) + -ia (suffix forming abstract nouns). *Decadens is the present participle of *decadere, from dē- (prefix meaning ‘down; from, of’) + cadere (the present active infinitive of cadō (“to fall, fall out; to decay; etc.”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱad- (“to fall”), possibly related to *ḱeh₂d- (“anger; hatred”)).

発音

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA: /ˈdɛkəd(ə)n(t)s/
• ハイフネーション: de‧cad‧ence

名詞

decadence (countable and uncountable, plural decadences)

1. (uncountable) With a negative connotation: the process of declining from a state of moral virtue, prosperity, etc., to a worse state; decay, deterioration; also, the bad state which has been reached; (countable) an instance of this.

   Synonym: decadency

   • a. 1735 (date written), Roger North, The Life of the Right Honourable Francis North, Baron of Guilford, […], London: […] John Whiston, […], published 1742, →OCLC, page 304:

     This Gentleman hath ever ſince, upon all Occaſions, continually expreſſed his grateful Acknovvledgements for all this noble Patronage, vvithout vvhich he had ſuffer'd large Decadences both of Mind and Body.

   • 1760, Oliver Goldsmith, “Letter XXXIX. From the Same [Lien Chi Altangi, to ***, Merchant in Amsterdam.]”, in The Citizen of the World; or Letters from a Chinese Philosopher, […], volume I, London: […] [F]or the author; and sold by J. Newbery and W. Bristow, […]; J. Leake and W. Frederick, […]; B. Collins, […]; and A. M. Smart and Co. […], published 1762, →OCLC, page 169:

     But it is novv thought even by the Engliſh themſelves that the race of their poets is extinct, every day produces ſome pathetic exclamation upon the decadence of taſte and genius.

   • 1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], chapter II, in Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC, page 21:

     He sold part of the lands, evacuated the old castle, where the family lived in their decadence, as a mouse (said an old farmer) lives under a firlot.

   • 1894 December 28 (date delivered), T[homas] C[hrowder] Chamberlin, “Recent Glacial Studies in Greenland: Annual Address”, in Joseph Stanley[-]Brown, editor, Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, volume 6, number XXVIII, Rochester, N.Y.: Geological Society of America, published 1895, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 212:

     [I]t would seem that localized freezings and thawings, growths and decadences, innumerable and constantly changing, must result, and with them motion of the granules themselves and of the common mass.

   • 1898, James Fitzmaurice-Kelly, “Introductory”, in Edmund Gosse, editor, A History of Spanish Literature (Short Histories of the Literatures of the World; 5), London: William Heinemann, →OCLC, page 6:

     This is but another illustration of the old maxim, that as the speed of falling bodies increases with distance, so literary decadences increase with time.

   • 1901 July 20, “Books. Chinese Literature.”, in The Spectator: A Weekly Journal of News, Politics, Literature, and Science, volume LXXXVII, number 3,812, London: John Baker, […], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 93, column 2:

     Chinese literature has had, of course, many changes, has had its prosperities and decadences, but it has always gone on, at least from Confucius until now.

   • 1956 January 27, Arthur C[harles] Clarke, chapter 5, in The City and the Stars, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, published 1956, →OCLC, page 29:

     Stability, however, is not enough. It leads too easily to stagnation, and thence to decadence.

   1. (uncountable, art, literature) An age or period of time when art, literature, etc., is regarded as having declined.
      • 1857, [Anna Brownell] Jameson, “Supplementary Notes”, in Legends of the Madonna as Represented in the Fine Arts. […], 2nd edition, London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, →OCLC, section II, page lxxiii:

        In no description of this chapel have I ever seen the names and subjects accurately given: the style of art belongs to the decadence, and the taste being worse than questionable, the pervading doctrinal idea has been neglected, or never understood.

2. (uncountable) With a positive connotation: the quality of being luxuriously enjoyable or self-indulgent, especially of food; luxuriousness, richness.

   the decadence of a five-star hotel

   • 2022, “Chocolate-peppermint Dream Bars [advertisement]”, in Brian Hart Hoffman, editor, Bake from Scratch: Holiday Cookies, Birmingham, Ala.: Hoffman Media, →OCLC, page 5:

     The epitome of chocolate decadence and peppermint bliss, these holiday dream bars feature C&H® Granulated Sugar and receive an extra dose of flavor from the subtle molasses notes found in C&H® Light Brown Sugar

3. (uncountable, archaic) The process or state of falling down or falling off.
   • 1812 August 1 (date written), Robert Wilson, edited by Herbert Randolph, Private Diary of Travels, Personal Services, and Public Events, during Mission and Employment with the European Armies in the Campaigns of 1812, 1813, 1814. […], volume I, London: John Murray, […], published 1861, →OCLC, page 136:

     I fell to the ground in the dirtiest soil that could be selected by a man in a state of decadence.

派生語

• decadent
• decadently
• nondecadent
• undecadent

関連する語

• decadency
• decay
• deciduous

Notes

参照

Further reading

• decadence on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin Eli Smith, editors (1895–1910), “decadence”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “decadence”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “decadence”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.