stultify: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

Follow Dictionary.com on Twitter. Word of the day, word trivia, unusual words, and more!
Word of the Day for Friday, August 21, 2009 stultify \STUHL-tuh-fahy\, verb: 1. To render useless or ineffectual; cripple. 2. To cause to appear stupid, inconsistent, or ridiculous. 3. Law To allege or prove insane and so not legally responsible. The word "civilization" to my mind is coupled with death. When I use the word, I see civilization as a crippling, thwarting thing, a stultifying thing. For me it was always so. I don't believe in the golden ages, you see... civilization is the arteriosclerosis of culture. -- Henry Miller It's different play… they're so busy building, they don't realize," says Kling. Although she notes that companies like Lego produce praiseworthy technological games, some technology can "stultify" children, but then, she adds, so can some board games. -- Mel Bezalel, "Fun and games - and more", Jerusalem Post, July 27, 2009 Stultify is from Late Latin stultificāre, "to make foolish." Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for stultify Yesterday's Word - Previous Words - Help
Follow Dictionary.com on Twitter. Word of the day, word trivia, unusual words, and more!
Dictionary.com Word of the Day http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/ You are currently subscribed to Dictionary.com Word of the Day as: mayorjfvalley@gmail.com To unsubscribe: http://lists.lexico.com/u?id=6044678G&n=T&l=wordoftheday&o=14275951 To subscribe to Word of the Day by email, please send a blank message to: join-wordoftheday@lists.lexico.com ©2009 by Dictionary.com, LLC. 555 12th Street Suite 500 Oakland CA 94607 Subscriptions to The Word of the Day can be turned on and off via the Web at http://www.dictionary.com/help/faq/wordoftheday/   Tell a friend about The Word of the Day!