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desuetude.

The state when something (for example, a custom or a law) is no longer observed nor practised; disuse, obsolescence.

9 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈdɛswɪtjuːd/Received-Pronunciation/dɪˈs(j)uːɪtjuːd/Received-Pronunciation/-tʃuːd/Received-Pronunciation/ˈdɛswəˌt(j)ud/General-American
  1. The state when something (for example, a custom or a law) is no longer observed nor practised; disuse, obsolescence.

    formal · uncountable
  2. The state when something (for example, a custom or a law) is no longer observed nor practised; disuse, obsolescence. An instance of this.

    countable · formal
  3. Chiefly followed by from or of: a cessation of practising or using something.

    countable · formal · obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Late Middle English desuetude, dissuetude (“discontinuance of a practice, disuse”), from Middle French désuétude (“obsolescence”) (modern French désuétude), from Latin dēsuētūdo (“discontinuance of a practice or a habit, disuse”), from dēsuētus + -tūdō (“suffix forming abstract nouns indicating conditions or states”). Dēsuētus is the perfect passive participle of dēsuēscō (“to make unaccustomed”), from de- (prefix having a reversing or undoing effect) + suēscō (“to become accustomed or used to; (Late Latin) to accustom, habituate, train”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *swé (“self”) + *dʰeh₁- (“to do; to place, put”), in the sense “to set as one’s own”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.