- 1
This is a rather old, word for the last years of a person’s life. We almost always say it as “in your dotage”, “in his dotage”, “in her dotage”. On the surface it means old age, and that is fair — though actually there is often a little extra meaning: the person’s mind is not as sharp as it was, or they have grown a bit foolish, or too soft. It is rarely a kind thing to say about someone sitting in front of you. In stories and jokes people use it about themselves: “I’m in my dotage; I forget names.” You will meet it in books and in careful writing more than in ordinary talk. A doctor would not put it on a form.
晚年(常帶「年老糊塗、心智不如從前」的味道,不是中性的「老年」)
原始詞典資料3 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法,原文照列,我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的;有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
dotagenoun/ˈdoʊtɪd͡ʒ/
- 1
Decline in judgment and other cognitive functions, associated with aging; senility.
- "More care!" said the old man in a shrill voice, […] there were in his face marks of deep and anxious thought which convinced me that he could not be, as I had been at first inclined to suppose, in a state of dotage or imbecility.
- 2
Fondness or attentiveness, especially to an excessive degree.
- Claudio And ſhe is exceeding wiſe. Prince In euery thing but in louing Benedicke. […] I would ſhee had beſtowed this dotage on mee, […]
- 3
Foolish utterance(s); drivel.
- No leſs are they out of the way in Philoſophy, peſtring their heads with the ſapleſs dotages of old Paris and Salamanca.
資料來源:英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary(CC BY-SA 4.0)。 原文照列,未經改寫。