2. a general situation (the overall state of things and events) of such excellent quality as to be admired; (synonyms): an estimable state of affairs; a commendable situation; a laudable set of circumstances; exemplary, creditable, meritorious, praiseworthy.

admirable, adjective, from admire [(French admirer, from Old French amirer, from Latin admīrārī, ‘to wonder at’, from ad- + mīrārī, ‘to wonder’, from mīrus, ‘wonderful’) + -able, adjectival suffix, from Middle English, from Old French, from Latin -ābilis, ‘-ibilis’; from -ā- and -i-, thematic vowels + -bilis, adjectival suffix]. ~ (Online Neoteric Dictionary).

• brain-flatus (informal): an idea that a person voices without much consideration, such as during a brainstorming session. ~ (Collins English Dictionary; Expurgated Version).

• brain-flatus (slang): when you mean to do something really obvious but then you forget what you were doing and end up doing something completely different. i.e., when you have a wrapper in one hand and food in the other, and throw away the food and try to eat the wrapper; [e.g.]: “Person A: ‘Man, I had such a brain-flatus today’; Person B: ‘What did you do?’; Person A: ‘I was holding food and a wrapper and threw away the food and tried to eat the wrapper’”. (Uploaded by ‘nv2001’; February 9, 2015). ~ (Urban English Dictionary; Expurgated Version).

• brain-flatus (colloquial): a momentary mental lapse in attention, memory, understanding, care, or competence; [e.g.]: “Sorry boss, I just had a little brain-flatus there. What were you saying again?”; “The sawyer, having a bit of a brain-flatus, unwittingly sawed the support beam completely in two”. ~ (Farlex Dictionary of Idioms; Expurgated Version).

• brain-flatus (synonyms): senectitude ineptitude (a.k.a. a senior moment); a blonde moment; a momentary lapse of reason; having a blind spot; bubbles in the think-tank; synapse lapse; brain cramp; a brain burp; mental hiccup; mental block; mental aberration; mental misfire; cranial-rectal inversion; cephalus flatulus. ~ (Online Neoteric Dictionary).

• flatus (n.): a reflex which expels intestinal gas through the anus; (synonym): breaking wind. ~ (Princeton’s WordNet 3.0).

• flatus (n.): gas generated in or expelled from the digestive tract, especially the intestines or stomach. [Latin flātus, ‘break wind’, ‘a blowing’, from flāre, ‘to blow’]. ~ (American Heritage Dictionary).

• flatus (n.): gas generated in the alimentary canal. [C17: from Latin, ‘a blowing’, ‘snorting’, from flāre, ‘to breathe’, ‘blow’]. ~ (Collins English Dictionary).

• flatus (n.; pl. flatuses): intestinal gas. [1660-70; from New Latin; from Latin: ‘blowing’, ‘breath’, ‘breathing’, derivative of flāre, ‘to blow’]. ~ (Webster’s College Dictionary).

Random Literary Samples.

• “‘That I will do with the greatest of *delightment*’, said the elder”. [emphasis added]. ~ (page 157, The Man Who Used the Universe”, by Alan Dean Foster Foster; 1946-1983).

• “‘With the greatest of *delightment*, Fourth Father’, echoed Naras Sharaf as he ended the clandestine transmission”. [emphasis added]. ~ (page 157, “The Man Who Used the Universe”, by Alan Dean Foster Foster; 1946-1983).

• “This is by far the best thing I have heard on here yet. I will unquestionably track the author down and ransack his other works for further *delightment*. Kudos!” [emphasis added]. ~ (from A. Derksen, online comment; October 22, 2008, “PodCastle, PC030: Grand Guignol”, by Andy Duncan; read by Frank Key).

• delight (v.): I. (trans.v.): to affect with great pleasure or rapture; please highly; give or afford a high degree of satisfaction or enjoyment to; as, ‘a beautiful landscape delights the eye’; ‘harmony delights the ear’; ‘poetry delights the mind’; [e.g.]: “I will delight myself in thy statutes”. (Psalm cxix. 16); “To me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me, no, nor woman either”. (William Shakespeare, “Hamlet”, ii, 2); II. (intr.v.): to have or take great; pleasure; be greatly pleased or rejoiced: followed by an infinitive or by in; [e.g.]: “The squyer delited nothinge ther-ynne whan that he smote his maister, but he wiste not fro whens this corage to hym come”. (Merlin; E. E. T. S., iii. 434); “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart”. (Psalm xl. 8); “The labour we delight in physics pain”. (William Shakespeare, “Macbeth”, ii. 3). [a wrong spelling, in imitation of words like light, might, etc.; the analogical modern spelling would be delite; from Middle English deliten, delyten, from Old French deleiter, deliter = Provinçal delectar = Spanish deleitar, delectar = Portuguese deleitar = Italian delettare, dilettare, from Latin delectare, ‘delight’, ‘please’, freqentive of delicere, ‘allure’; see delicate, delectable, delicious]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• delight (n.): 1. a high degree of pleasure or satisfaction; joy; rapture; [e.g.]: “His delight is in the law of the Lord”. (Psalm i. 2); “Thus came I into England with great joy and hearts delight, both to my selfe and all my acquaintance”. (Edward Webbe, “Travels”; ed. Edward Arber, p. 31); “The ancients and our own Elizabethans, ere spiritual megrims had become fashionable, perhaps made more out of life by taking a frank delight in its action and passion”. (James Lowell, “Among my Books”, 2d sermon, p, 249); 2. that which gives great pleasure; that which affords a high degree of satisfaction or enjoyment; [e.g.]: “But, man, what doste thou with alle this? | Thowe doest the delytys of the devylle”. (Political Poems, etc.; ed. Furnivall, p. 172); “Come, sisters, cheer we up his sprites, | And show the best of our delights”. (William Shakespeare, Macbeth, iv. 1); “Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise,... | To scorn delights, and live laborious days”. (John Milton, “Lycidas”, 1. 72); 3. licentious pleasure; lust (Geoffery Chaucer); (synonyms): 1. joy, pleasure, etc. (see gladness), gratification, rapture, transport, ecstasy, delectation. [a wrong spelling (see the verb); earlier delite; from Middle English delite, delit, delyt, from Old French deleit, delit = Provinçal delieg, deliet = Spanish, Portuguese deleite = Italian diletto, ‘delight’; from the verb]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• delighted (part. adj.; in the quotation from Shakspere the meaning of the word is doubtful): 1. greatly pleased; joyous; joyful; [e.g.]: “About the keel delighted dolphins play”. (Edmund Waller, “His Majesty’s Escape”); “Ay, but to die, and go we know not where, | To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot; | This sensible warm motion to become | A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit | To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside | In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice”. (William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, iii. 1); “But thou, O Hope, with eyes so fair—| What was thy delighted measure?” (William Collins, “The Passions”); 2.† delightful; delighted-in; [e.g.]: “If virtue no delighted beauty lack, | Your son-in-law is far more white than black”. (William Shakespeare, “Othello”, i. 3); “Whom hest I love I cross; to make my gift, | The more delay’d, deliyhted”. (William Shakespeare, “Cymbeline”, v. 4). [pp. of delight, verb]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• delightedly (adv.): in a delighted manner; with delight; [e.g.]: “Delightedly dwells he ’mong fays and talismans, | And spirits; and delightedly believes | Divinities, being himself divine”. (Samuel Taylor Coleridge, tr. of Schiller’s “Death of Walleustein”). ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• delighter (n.; rare): one who takes delight; [e.g.]: “Ill-humoured, or a delighter in telling bad stories”. (Isaac Barrow, “Sermons”, I. 250). ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• delightful (adj.): highly pleasling; affording great pleasure and satisfaction: as, ‘a delightful thought’; ‘a delightful prospect’; [e.g.]: “The house is delightful—the very perfection of the old Elizabethan style”. (Lord Macaulay’s “Life and Letters”, I. 191); “After all, to be delightful is to be classic, and the chaotic never pleases long”. (James Russell Lowell, “Among my Books”, 1st sermon, p. 204); (synonyms): delicious, delightful (see delicious); charming, exquisite, enchanting, rapturous, ravishing. [from delight + -ful¹]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• delightfully (adv.): 1. in a delightful manner; in a manner to afford great pleasure; charmingly; [e.g.]: “How can you more profitably or more delightfully employ yore Sunday leisure than in the performance of such duties as these?” (Bishop Porteous, “Works”, I. ix); 2.† with delight; delightedly; [e.g.]: “O voice once heard | Delightfully, Increase and Multiply; | Now death to hear!” (John Milton, “Paradise Lost”, x. 730). ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• delightfulness (n.): 1. the quality of being delightful, or of affording great pleasure: as, ‘the delightfulness of a prospect or of scenery’; ‘the delightfulness of leisure’; [e.g.]: “Because it [deportment] is a nurse of peace and greatly contributes to the delightfulness of society, [it] hath been always much commended”. (Dr. Isaac Barrow, “Sermons”, I. xxix); 2† the state of being delighted; great pleasure; delight; [e.g.]: “But our desires’ tyrannical extortion | Doth force us there to set our chief delightfulness | Where but a baiting place is all our portion”. (Sir Philip Sidney, “The Complete Works”). ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• delightingly (adv.): 1. in a delighting manner; so as to give delight; 2.† with delight; cheerfully; cordially; [e.g.]: “He did not consent clearly and delightingly to Sequiri’s death”. (Jeremy Taylor, “Ductor Dubitantium”). ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• delightless (adj.): affording no pleasure or delight; cheerless; [e.g.]: “Winter oft at eve resumes the breeze, | Chills the pale moon, and bids his driving sleets | Deform the day delightless”. (James Thomson, “The Four Seasons: Spring”). [from delight + -less]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• delightsome (adj.): delightful; imparting delight; [e.g.]: “Then deck thee with thy loose, delightsome robes, | And on thy wings bring delicate perfumes”. (George Peele, “The Love of King David and Fair Bethsabe”, 1594); “The Kingdom of Tonquin is in general healthy enough, especially in the dry season, when also it is very delightsome”. (William Dampier, “Dampier’s Voyages”, II. i. 31). [from delight + -some]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• delightsomely (adv.): in a delightful manner; in a way to give or receive delight; [e.g.]: “I have not lived my life i>delightsomely”. (Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Balin and Balan”). ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• [Editorial Note]: The word “genitor” is particularly apt, on occasion, to be able to refer dispassionately to being a male biological parent or to denote such genetic paternity without the affectuous connotations (as in ‘paternal interest’ or ‘fatherly support’, ‘protective impulse’, ‘providore’, ‘solicitous’, and so on) which the more common phrase “my father” popularly expresses.

Similarly, the term “my genitor” is also very useful, on occasion, to refer dispassionately to one’s male genetic parent or to denote such biological paternity without the affectional connotations (as in “blood is thicker than water” or “the bonds of kinship” or “the ties that bind”) which the more common phrase “my father” popularly expresses.
As is the case with the word genetrix. ~ (Online Neoteric Dictionary).

• genetrix (n.): a female parent, a mother; genetrice; (anthropology): a person’s biological as opposed to legal mother.[from Latin generare, ‘beget’ + -trix, feminine suffix; lit. physical or genetic mother]. ~ (Online Neoteric Dictionary).

• [Editorial Note]: The word “genetrix” is very useful, on occasion, to be able to refer dispassionately to being a female biological parent or to denote such genetic maternity without the affectuous connotations (as in ‘maternal feelings’ or ‘motherly instinct’, ‘nurturant’, ‘nourishing’, ‘comfortive’ and so forth) which the more common word mother popularly expresses.
Similarly, the term “my genetrix” is also very useful, on occasion, to refer dispassionately to one’s female genetic parent or to denote such biological maternity without the affectional connotations (as in “blood is thicker than water” or “the bonds of kinship” or “the ties that bind”) which the more common phrase “my mother” popularly expresses. ~ (Online Neoteric Dictionary).

• hortatory (adj.): marked by exhortation or strong urging; [e.g.]: “It was a hortatory speech”. [Late Latin hortātōrius, from Latin hortātus, ‘exhorted’, past participle of hortārī, ‘to exhort’]. ~ (American Heritage Dictionary).

• hortatory (adj.): tending to exhort; encouraging; (n.): hortation; (adv.): hortatorily, hortatively. [C16: from Late Latin hortātōrius, ‘encouraging’, from Latin hortārī, ‘to exhort’]. ~ (Collins English Dictionary).

• hortatory (adj.): urging to some course of conduct or action; exhorting; encouraging: a hortatory speech; (adv.): hortatorily. [1580-90; from Late Latin hortātōrius, ‘encouraging’, from hortā(rī), ‘to exhort’ + -tōrius, ‘-tory¹’]. ~ (Webster’s College Dictionary).

• hortatory (adj.): giving strong encouragement; (synonyms): exhortative, exhortatory, hortative; (related word): encouraging (giving courage or confidence or hope; [e.g.]: “they were encouraging advances in medical research”). ~ (Princeton’s WordNet 3.0).

• hortation (n.): the act of exhorting, or giving advice and encouragement; exhortation. [from Latin hortatio(n-), from hortari, ‘urge strongly’, ‘incite’, ‘encourage’, contraction of koritari, frequentiveof hori, ‘urge’, ‘incite’; cf. dehort, exhort]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• hortatively (adv.): in a hortative manner (viz.: urging to some course of conduct or action; exhorting; encouraging; [e.g.]: “Speaking hortatively he urged action soonest”); (synonym): hortatorily. [from Late Latin hortātōrius, ‘encouraging’, from Latin hortātus, past participle of hortārī, ‘to urge’, ‘to exhort’]. ~ (Online Neoteric Dictionary).

• hortatory (adj.): encouraging; inciting; urging to some course of conduct or action: as, a hortatory address; a hortatory style; [e.g.]: “I also send you here another hortatory letter, written in Latin, to the brethren who are embracing Christ with the cross”. (Bishop Ridley, in “Bradford’s Letters”; Parker Soc., 1853, II. 207); “He animated his souldiers with many hortatorie orations”. (Philemon Holland, 1552-1637, tr. of Ammianus Marcellinus’ “Res Gestae”, p. 202). [= Old French hortatif = Portuguese hortativo (rare), from Latin hortaticus, ‘that serves for encouragement’, from hortari, ‘encourage’, ‘incite’: see hortation]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

⁽⁰¹⁾palterer (n.): one who palters⁽⁰²⁾ or equivocates; an insincere dealer; a shifty person; a trifler; a trickster; [e.g.]: “There be of you, it may be, that will account me a palterer, for hanging out the sign of the red-herring in my title-page, and no such feast towards for aught you can see”. (Thomas Nashe, “Nashe’s Lenten Stuffe”, 1599; London); “Vile palterer with the sacred truth of God, | Be thy soul choked with that blaspheming lie!” (Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Cenci, A Tragedy, in Five Acts”, 1819). ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

⁽⁰²⁾palter (v.): I. (intr.v.): 1. to talk in a trifling manner; babble; 2. to talk insincerely; equivocate; trifle; shift; use trickery; II. (tr.v.): 1. to fashion by trickery; patch up; 2. to trifle away; use or spend in a paltry manner; squander. [formerly also paulter]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• palter (intr.v.; paltered, paltering, palters; archaic): 1. to talk or act insincerely or misleadingly; equivocate (viz.: to use equivocal language in an attempt to mislead; (synonyms): lie², equivocate, fib, prevaricate; these verbs mean to evade or depart from the truth; [e.g.]: “a witness who lied under oath”; “she didn’t equivocate about her real purpose”; “the youngster fibbed to escape being scolded”; “he didn’t prevaricate but answered honestly”); 2. to be capricious; trifle; 3. to quibble, especially in bargaining; (n.): palterer. [origin unknown]. ~ (American Heritage Dictionary).

• palter (intr.v.): 1. to act or talk insincerely; 2. to haggle; (n.): palterer. [C16: of unknown origin]. ~ (Collins English Dictionary).

• palter (intr.v.): 1. to talk or act insincerely or deceitfully; 2. to haggle; 3. to act carelessly; trifle. [1595-1605; of uncertain orig]. ~ (Webster’s College Dictionary).

• palter (v.): be deliberately ambiguous or unclear in order to mislead or withhold information; (synonyms): beat around the bush, equivocate, prevaricate, tergiversate; misinform, mislead (give false or misleading information to). ~ (Princeton’s WordNet 3.0).

• palter (v.): 1. to stray from truthfulness or sincerity; (synonyms): equivocate, prevaricate, shuffle; 2. to argue about the terms, as of a sale; (synonyms): bargain, dicker, haggle, higgle, huckster, negotiate. ~ (American Heritage Roget’s Thesaurus).

• palter (v.): deal crookedly or evasively; use trickery. ~ (Oxford English Dictionary).

• palter (v.): to act insincerely or deceitfully. ~ (Merriam-Webster Dictionary).

• palter (v.): to talk or act insincerely or deceitfully; lie or use trickery. ~ (Info-Please English Dictionary).

• palter (v.): to act or talk insincerely or deceitfully. ~ (Encarta English Dictionary).

Random Literary Examples.

• “She was embarrassed to discover that excitement at the proximity of Mr Clare’s breath and eyes, which she had contemned in her companions, was intensified in herself; and as if fearful of betraying her secret she paltered with him at the last moment...”. [italics added]. ~ (page 186, Chapter Twenty-Three: ‘The Rally’, in “Tess of the d’Urbervilles; A Pure Woman”, by Thomas Hardy (1840-1928); 1891, James R. Osgood, McIlvaine & Co., London).

• “I have seen them myself”, snapped the Justice. “They are very conspicuous. And I would warn you, sir, that if you palter with the truth in such little matters you may darken your more important statements with suspicion...”. [italics added]. ~ (“The Night-Born”, by Jack London, First American edition published by The Century Company in 1913.

• “I could not lift him up, of course; but I rolled him over, and poured water down his back. He presently came to, and said: ‘Thirty-five yards—without a rest? But why ask? Since murder was that man’s intention, why should he palter with small details? But mark you one thing: in my fall the world shall see how the chivalry of France meets death’...”. [italics added]. ~ (page 68, Chapter Eight: ‘The Great French Duel’, in “A Tramp Abroad, Volume One”, by Mark Twain (1835-1910): 1880, Harper & Brothers, New York, London).

• The word presentiation = Vergegenwärtigung (as per Mr. Edmund Husserl).

Here are some dictionary definitions.

Viz.:

• presentiate (v.t.): make or render present in place or time; to cause to be perceived or realised as present. [now rare. 1659. perh. fr. present + ate‹3›, after different, differentiate]. ~ (Oxford English Dictionary).

• presentiate (vt.): to make present. ~ (Knowles 1851 Dictionary).

• presentiated (pp.): made present. ~ (Knowles 1851 Dictionary).

• presential (a.): supposing actual presence. ~ (Knowles 1851 Dictionary).

• presentiality (n.): state of being present. ~ (Knowles 1851 Dictionary).

• presentially (ad.): in a way which supposes actual presence. ~ (Knowles 1851 Dictionary).

• presentiating (ppr.): making present. ~ (Knowles 1851 Dictionary).

(viz.: https://archive.org/stream/criticalpronounc00knowrich#page/516/mode/1up).

Plus that other word, ‘presentification’, introduced in the ‘Husserl Dictionary’ quote (presentific = presentiate).

Viz.:

• presentiate (v.t.): make or render present in place or time; to cause to be perceived or realised as present. [now rare; 1659; perhaps from present + ate³, after different, differentiate]. ~ (Oxford English Dictionary).

• presentiate (tr.v.): to make present. ~ (Knowles 1851 Dictionary).

• presentiate† (tr.v.): to make present or actual; [e.g.]: “The phancy may be so cleer and strong as to presentiate upon one theatre all that ever it took notice of in time past”. (Nehemiah Grew, 1641-1712, “Cosmologia Sacra”, 1701, iii. 4). [from Latin praesentia, ‘presence’ (see presence) + -ate²]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• presentiated (pp.): made present.~ (Knowles 1851 Dictionary).

• presential (a.): supposing actual presence. ~ (Knowles 1851 Dictionary).

• presentiality (n.): state of being present. ~ (Knowles 1851 Dictionary).

• presentially (ad.): in a way which supposes actual presence. ~ (Knowles 1851 Dictionary).

• presentiating (ppr.): making present. ~ (Knowles 1851 Dictionary).

• presentiation (n.): the act of presentiating (i.e., making present) or state of being presentiated (i.e., made present); (synonym): Vergegenwärtigung (after Edmund Husserl; q.v.). [from presentiat(e), ‘make present’ + -ion, Middle English, from Old French, from Latin -iō, ‘-iōn’, nounal suffix]. ~ (Online Neoteric Dictionary).

• Vergegenwärtigung (n.): Husserl uses the term Vergegenwärtigung, translated as ‘representation’ or as ‘presentification’ or ‘presentiation’ to distinguish it from ‘presentation’ (Vorstellung), which in everyday German suggests the process of ‘calling to mind’, ‘visualising’ or ‘conjuring up an image in one’s mind’, to characterise quite a number of processes – including not just imagining, but remembering and also empty intending – which are to be contrasted with the full presence of the intended object in a genuine ‘presenting’ or ‘presencing’ (Gegenwärtigung). Here, some familiarity with Husserl’s overall theory of intuiting is needed to understand fully what is at stake. ~ (The Husserl Dictionary).

• presentific† (adj.): making present; [e.g.]: “Adam had a sense of the divine presence; ... notwithstanding that he found no want of any covering to hide himself from that presentifick sense of him”. (Dr. Henry More, 1614-1687, “Defence of the Philosophic Cabbala”, ii). [from Latin praesenten(t-)s, ‘present’ + -ficus, ‘making’, see -fic]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• presentifical† (adj.): same as presentific. [from presentific + -al]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• presentificly† (adv.): in a presentific manner; in such a manner as to make present; [e.g.]: “The whole evolution of times and ages... is collectedly and presentifickly represented to God at once, as if all things and actions were at this very instant really present and existent before him”. (Dr. Henry More, 1614-1687). ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• [Editorial Note]: The term “my progenitors” is quite apt, on occasion, to refer dispassionately to one’s biological parents or to denote such genetic parentage without the affectional connotations (as in ‘blood is thicker than water’ or ‘the bonds of kinship’ or ‘the ties that bind’) which the more common phrase “my parents” popularly expresses.

Similarly, the word “progenitor” (also “progenitrix”) is also quite apt, on occasion, when referring dispassionately to being a biological parent or to denote such genetic parentage without the affectuous connotations (as in ‘parental love’ or ‘maternalistic’ or ‘paternalistic’, or ‘protective’ and/or ‘provisionary’, or ‘supportive’ and/or ‘indulgent’, and so on) which the more common word “parent” popularly expresses.
As is the case with the word procreator (more on this further below).

• progenitor (n.): an ancestor in the direct line; a forefather; a parent; [e.g.]: “If children pre-decease progenitors, | We are their offspring, and they none of ours”. (William Shakespeare, “Lucrece”, 1. 1756); “Ah! whither shall we go? | Down to the grave, down to those happy shades below, | Where all our brave progenitors are blest | With endless triumph and eternal rest”. (John Pomfret, “A Prospect of Death”; 1704); “By the term fresh stock I mean a non-related plant the progenitors of which have been raised during some generations in another garden”. (Charles Darwin, “Cross and Self Fertilisation”, p. 257). [early modern English progenitour, from Old French progeniteur = Spanish, Portugese progenitor = Italian progenitore, from Latin progenitor, ‘the founder of a family’, ‘an ancestor’, from progignere, pp. progenitus, ‘beget’, ‘bring forth’, from pro, ‘forth’, + gignere, ‘beget’, ‘produce’; see genitor]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• [Editorial Note]: On a related matter: the words “offspring” and “progeny” and “scion” (plus “descendants” and “successors” and “issue”)—in lieu of the words “child” or “children”—are useful, on occasion, to refer to any such progeniture or biological issue who have matured into adulthood. And they are especially useful where parentage, grandparentage and great-grandparentage (or even great-great-grandparentage) is ensuant upon senectitude.

As the word “childhood” specifically refers to the period from birth to puberty—and the word “child” typically refers to an infant (a baby), a tot (a toddler), a girl or a boy (a lass or a lad), youngsters (juveniles) or youth (adolescents)—then for great-grandparents, in their eighties or nineties, to refer their great-grandchildren’s parent’s mother and/or father (i.e., those children’s sixty-to-seventy-year-old grandparents) as ‘our children’ requires a cognitive double-take and a mental accommodation to the fact that those great-grandparents have still not relinquished their long-lapsed primary parenting and/or childcare rôle (the care, and upbringing, of children preparatory to adulthood).

• offspring (n.): 1. child, baby, youngster, infant, babe, toddler, tot, little one, brat, chit, scion⁽⁰¹⁾, heir, issue, successor, descendant; (Scottish): wean, bairn; (informal): babe in arms, kid, nipper; (informal, Australian): littlie; (informal, chiefly American): munchkin; (slang, Australian): ankle-biter; (slang): sprog, rug rat; [e.g.]: “She was less anxious about her offspring than she had been”; (antonyms): parent, predecessor, ancestor, forerunner, forebear, forefather, progenitor, begetter, procreator; 2. children, young, fry, family, progeny, scions, stock, descendants, successors, heirs, brood, spawn, issue, posterity, lineage; (chiefly biblical): seed; (informal): kids; [e.g.]: “Some characteristics are always passed from parents to offspring over time”. ~ (Collins English Thesaurus).

⁽⁰¹⁾scion (n.): 1. a descendant or offspring, esp. of an illustrious family; 2. a shoot or twig, esp. one cut for grafting or planting. [1275-1325; Middle English: ‘shoot’, ‘twig’, from Old French cion,from Frankish *kī-; cf. Old English cīnan, Old Saxon kīnan, Old High German chīnan, ‘to sprout’, Old English cīth, Old Saxon kīth, ‘sprout’]. ~ (Webster’s College Dictionary).

⁽⁰¹⁾scion (n.): 1. also called sient⁽⁰²⁾, a descendant, heir, or young member of a family; 2. a shoot or twig of a plant used to form a graft. [C14: from Old French cion of Germanic origin; cf. Old High German chīnan, ‘to sprout’]. ~ (Collins English Dictionary).

⁽⁰²⁾sient (n.): another name for scion. ~ (Collins English Dictionary).

⁽⁰²⁾sient (n.; pl. sients): obsolete spelling of scion (= ‘a descendant, esp. a first-generation descendant of a distinguished family’). ~ (Wiktionary English Dictionary).

• progeniture (n.; pl. progenitures): 1. procreation; [e.g.]: “Since symmetrical and better proportionned children will grow into attractive adults, and will mate other attractive offspring with superior genes which confer on their host a socio-biological advantage, it only makes sense for parents to care more about their progeniture since they are more ‘valuable’”. (Online Comment No. 50, by Jason; October 27, 2006; in response to “Study: Ugly Children Get Shortchanged by Parents”, by Barry Deutsch; May 4, 2005, ‘Alas a Blog’); 2. ancestry, lineage; [e.g.]: “It will be the parent of a long progeniture, and distant councils of the Empire may, in some far-off time, look back to the meeting in this room as the root from which all their greatness and all their beneficence sprang”. (Lord Robert Cecil, 1830-1903, “Imperial Conference”, April, 1887); “And the basic idea of every clans progeniture is a powerful God; the legitimate order in which the descendants of a particular clan unite in marriage to found new families, the essential origin of every new-born babe’s descent in the founder of its race and its consideration as a part of the God in Chief; the security with which the newly wedded wife not only may, but should, minister to her own God in an unfamiliar home”. (Leo Frobenius, “The Voice of Africa”, tr. by Rudolf Blind; 1913); 3. offspring, progeny; [e.g.]: “The women of the people have many labours to perform, and are the ones who manipulate the grains, hydromel {= a mixture of water and honey which becomes mead when fermented} and beer, and grind pepper in the moulin à bras {= hand-mill}. Women who have children of a tender age go at these operations with their progeniture upon the back, after the manner of negro peoples”. (Chapter Seven, “Scientific American Supplement”. Vol. 26, No. 664; September 1888, New York). [etymology: from Middle English progeniture,from French progéniture⁽*⁾]. [Curly bracketed inserts added] ~ (Wiktionary English Dictionary).

⁽*⁾progéniture (French; fem., n.; pl. progénitures): offspring, progeny; [e.g.]: “Un salarié peut-il réclamer le chômage partiel dans l’hypothèse où il ne sait comment faire garder saprogéniture?”{= ‘Can an employee claim partial unemployment if they do not know how to look after theirprogéniture?’} (from, “Leave, Teleworking, Partial Unemployment; Employees Forced to Adapt”, by Raphaëlle Desmoulières and Bertrand Bissuel; April 2, 2021, in Le Monde). [Curly bracketed inserts added] ~ (Wiktionary English Dictionary).

• procreator (n.): one who begets; a generator; a father or sire. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• procreator (n.; pl. procreators): one who procreates; a father or mother; (n.): (figuratively): one who originates or creates something. ~ (Wiktionary English Dictionary).

• procreator (n.): one who begets; a generator; a father or sire. ~ (Webster’s 1828 Dictionary).

• procreator (n.): one who begets; a father or sire; a generator. ~ (Webster’s 1913 Dictionary).

• procreator (n.): one who begets; a generator; a father or sire; [e.g.]: “He is unkynd and unnatural that will not cherishe hys natural procreators and parentes”. (Edward Hall, 1496-1547, Edward IV., an. 8). [from Old French procreateur, French procréateur = Spanish, Portuguese procreador = Italian procreatere, from Latin procreator, ‘a begetter’, ‘a producer’, from procreare, pp. procreatus, ‘bring forth’, ‘generate’; see procreate]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• procreatrix (n.): a mother. (Randle Cotgrave, 1569-1652, “A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues”; 1611). [= French procréatrice, from Latin procreatrix, fem. of procreator; see procreator]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• procreate (v.; procreated, procreating, procreates; intr.v.): to produce offspring; reproduce; (tr.v.): to produce offspring; reproduce; (adj.): procreant; (n.): procreation, procreator. [Latin prōcreāre, prōcreāt-, from prō-, ‘forward’ + creāre, ‘to create’]. ~ (American Heritage Dictionary).

• procreate (v.): 1. to beget or engender (offspring); 2. (tr.v.): to bring into being; (adj.): procreant, procreative; (n.): procreation, procreator. [C16: from Latin prōcreāre, from pro-¹+creāre, ‘to create’]. ~ (Collins English Dictionary).

• procreate (v.; procreated, procreating; tr.v.): 1. to beget or generate (offspring); 2. to produce; bring into being; (intr.v.): 3. to beget offspring; (adj.): procreative; (n.): procreation, procreator. [1530-40; from Latin prōcreātus, past participle of prōcreāre,‘to breed’; from pro-¹+ ‘create’]. ~ (Webster’s College Dictionary).

• procreate (v.): have offspring or produce more individuals of a given animal or plant; [e.g.]: “The Bible tells people to procreate and pullulate {= breed rapidly and abundantly} and subdue the earth”; (synonyms): reproduce, multiply; (related words): biological science, biology (the science which studies living organisms); propagate (multiply sexually or asexually); fructify, set (bear fruit; [e.g.]: “The apple trees fructify prodigiously”); multiply, breed (have young animals or reproduce organisms; [e.g.]: “Pandas rarely breed in captivity”; “These bacteria reproduce rapidly”); incubate, hatch, brood, cover (sit on eggs; [e.g.]: “Most birds brood in nesting season”; “The female covers the eggs”); create, make (make or cause to be or to become; [e.g.]: “She knows how to make a mess in our office”; “She knows how to create a furore at work”). ~ (Princeton’s WordNet 3.0).

• procreate (v.): (formal): reproduce, mother, produce, father, breed, generate, sire, engender, propagate, beget, bring into being; [e.g.]: “Most people feel a biological need toprocreateearly in life”. ~ (Collins English Thesaurus).

• procreate (v.): 1. to be the biological father of; (synonyms): beget, breed, father, get, sire; 2. to produce sexually or asexually others of one’s kind; (synonyms): breed, increase, multiply, proliferate, propagate, reproduce, spawn; 3. to cause to come into existence; (synonyms): beget, breed, create, engender, father, hatch, make, originate, parent, produce, sire, spawn; (idiom): give birth to. ~ (The American Heritage Roget’s Thesaurus).

• procreate (tr.v.): to generate and produce; to beget; to engender. ~ (Webster’s 1913 Dictionary).

• procreate (v.): to beget; to produce by the sexual act; said usually of the male parent. [Latin pro-creo, pp.-creatus, ‘to beget’]. ~ (Farlex Partner Medical Dictionary).

• procreation (law): the generation of children; it is an act authorised by the law of nature; [e.g.]: “One of the principal ends of marriage is the procreation of children”. ~ (A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States, by John Bouvier; published 1856).

• procreant (adj. & n.): I. (adj.): procreating; producing young; related to or connected with reproduction; [e.g.]: “No jutty, frieze, | Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird [the martlet] | Bath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle”. (William Shakespeare, “Macbeth”, i. 6. 8); “But the loss of liberty is not the whole of what the procreant bird suffers; Harvey tells us that he has often found the female wasted to skin and bone by sitting upon her eggs”. (William Paley, 1743-1805, “Natural Theology”, chap. xviii, ‘Instincts’, page 210); “Herprocreantvigils Nature keeps | Amid the unfathomable deeps”. (William Wordsworth, “Vernal Ode”); procreant cause: see conservant; II. (n.): one who or that which procreates or generates; [e.g.]: “Those imperfect and putrid creatures who receive a crawling life from two most unlike procreants, the Sun and mudde”. (John Milton, on “A Defence of the Humble Remonstrance”; 1641-42). [= Spanish, Italian procreante, from Latin procrean(t-)s, ppr. of procreare, ‘bring forth’, ‘beget’; seeprocreate]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• procreate (tr.v.; pret. and pp. procreated, ppr. procreating): to beget; generate; engender; produce: as, to procreate children; [e.g.]: “He was lineally descended, and naturally procreated, of the noble stocke and familie of Lancaster”. (Edward Hall, 1496-1547, “Edward IV.”, an. 9); “Since the earth retains her fruitful power | To procreate plants, the forest to restore”. (Sir Richard Blackmore,1654-1729, “The Poetical Works”, 1797, p. 142). [from Latin procreatus, pp. of procreare (hence Italian procreare = Spanish, Portuguese procrear = French procréer), ‘bring forth’, ‘beget’, from pro, ‘before’ +creare,‘produce’, ‘create’; seecreate]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• procreative (adj.): having the power or function of procreating; reproductive; generative; having the power to beget; [e.g.]: “The ordinary period of the human procreative faculty in males is sixty-five, in females forty-five”. (Sir Matthew Hale). [from procreate+-ive]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• procreativeness (n.): the state or quality of being procreative; the power of generating; [e.g.]: “These have the accurst privilege of propagating and not expiring, and have reconciled theprocreativenessof corporeal with the duration of incorporeal substances”. (Richard Allestree, “The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety”, 1667; chap. ix, p. 261). [from procreative+-ness]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• rememorance (n.): remembrance; [e.g.]: “Nowe menne it call, by all rememoraunce, Constantyne noble, wher to dwell he did enclyne”. (John Hardyng, 1378-1465, “Hardyng’s Chronicle”, f. 50; James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps: “A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words”, page 676). [Middle English rememoraunce, a variation, after Medieval Latin *rememorantia, of remembraunce; see remembrance⁽*⁾]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

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⁽*⁾remembrance (n.):

1. the act of remembering; the keeping of a thing in mind or recalling it to mind; a revival in the mind or memory; [e.g.]: “All knowledge is but remembrance”. (Francis Bacon, “Advancement of Learning”, i. 2); “Remembrance is but the reviving of some past knowledge”. (John Locke, 1632-1704, “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding”, 1690, IV. i. 9); “Remembrance and reflection, how allied; | What thin partitions sense from thought divide!” (Alexander Pope, “An Essay on Man”, 1733-34, i. 225); 

2. the power or faculty of remembering; memory; also, the limit of time over which the memory extends; [e.g.]: “Thee I have heard relating what was done | Ere my remembrance”. (John Milton, “Paradise Lost”, viii. 204); “When the word perception is used properly and without any figure, it is never applied to things past. And thus it is distinguished from remembrance”. (Thomas Reid, 1710-1796, “Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man”, 1786, i. 1); 

3. the state of being remembered; the state of being held honourably in memory; [e.g.]: “The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance”. (Ps. cxii. 6); “Grace and remembrance be to you both”. (William Shakespeare, “The Winter’s Tale”, iv. 4. 76); “O scenes in strong remembrance set! | Scenes never; never to return! | Scenes if in stupor I forget, | Again I feel, again I burn! | From every joy and pleasure torn, | Life’s weary vale I wander through; | And hopeless, comfortless, I will mourn | A faithless woman’s broken vow!” (Robert Burns, “The Lament”); 

4. that which is remembered; a recollection; [e.g.]: “How sharp the point of this remembrance is!” (William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, v. 1. 138); “The sweet remembrance of the just | Shall flourish when he sleeps in dust”. (Tare and Brady, Ps. cxii. 6); 

5. that which serves to bring to or keep in mind; [e.g.]: “I pray, Sir, be my continual remembrance to the Throne of grace”. (William Bradford, in Appendix to “New England’s Memorial”, p. 435);

(a) an account preserved; a memorandum or note to preserve or assist the memory; a record; mention; [e.g.]: “Auferius, the welebelouyd kyng | That was of Ynd, and ther had his dwellyng | Till he was puttc [from] his enheritaunce, | Wherof be fore was made remembraunce”. (Generydes; E. E. T. S., 1. 2177); “Let the understanding reader take with him three or four short remembrances. ... The memorandums I would commend to him are these”. (William Chillingworth, “The Religion of Protestants, Answer to Fifth Chapter”, § 29);

(b) a monument; a memorial; [e.g.]: “And it is of trouthe, as they saye there, and as it is assygned by token of a fayre stone layde for remembraunce, yt our blessyd Lady and seynt John Euangelyste stode not aboue vpon the hyghest pte of the Mounte of Caluery at the passyon of our Lord”. (Sir Richard Guylforde, “Pylgrymage to The Holy Land”, 1506, p. 27); “If I neuer deserue anye better remembraunce, let mee ... be epitaphed the Inuentor of the English Hexameter”. (Gabriel Harvey, 1552-1631, “Foure Letters and certaine Sonnets”, 1592); (e) a token by which one is kept in the memory; a keep-sake; [e.g.]: “I am glad I have found this napkin; | This was her first remembrance from the Moor”. (William Shakespeare, “Othello”, iii. 8. 291); “I pray you accept | This small remembrance of a father’s thanks | For so assur’d a benefit”. (Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, “Love’s Pilgrimage”, v. 2); 6. the state of being mindful; thought; regard; consideration; notice of something absent; [e.g.]: “In what place that euer I be in, the moste remembraunce that I shall hane shah be vpon yow, and on yowre nedes”. (Merlin; E. E. T. S., i. 49); “We with wisest sorrow think on him, | Together with remembrance of ourselves”. (William Shakespeare, “Hamlet”, i. 2. 7); “The Puritans, to keep the remembrance of their unity one with another, and of their peaceful compact with the Indians, named their forest settlement Concord”. (Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Historical Discourse at Concord”, 1835); 7†. admonition; reminder; [e.g.]: “I do commit into your hand | The unstained sword that you have used to bear; | With this remembrance, that you use the same | With the like bold, just, and impartial spirit | As you have done ’gainst me”. (William Shakespeare, “2 Henry IV.”, v. 2. 115); clerks of the remembrance: see remembrancer;

2. to make remembrance: to bring to remembrance; recount; relate; (synonyms): 1, 2, and 4., recollection, reminiscence, etc.; see memory; viz.: memory, recollection, remembrance, reminiscence; memory is the general word for the faculty or capacity itself; recollection and remembrance are different kinds of exercise of the faculty; reminiscence, also, is used for the exercise of the faculty, but less commonly, and then it stands for the least energetic use of it, the matter seeming rather to be suggested to the mind; the correctness of the use of memory for that which is remembered has been disputed; the others are freely used for that which is remembered; in either sense, recollection implies more effort, more detail, and more union of objects in wholes, than remembrance does; reminiscence is used chiefly of past events, rarely of thoughts, words, or scenes, while recollection is peculiarly appropriate for the act of recalling mental operations; see remember; viz.: remember implies that a thing exists in the memory, not that it is actually present in the thoughts at the moment, but that it recurs without effort; recollect means that a fact, forgotten or partially lost to memory, is after some effort recalled and present to the mind; remembrance is the store-house, recollection the act of culling out this article and that from the repository; [e.g.]: “He remembers everything he hears, and can recollect any statement when called on”; the words, however, are often confounded, and we say we cannot remember a thing when we mean we cannot recollect it. [early modern English also remembraunce; from Middle English remembrance, remembraunce, from Old French remembrance, remembraunce, French remembrance = Provinçal remembransa = Spanish remembranza = Portuguese remembrança, lembrança = Italian rimembranza,from Medieval Latin as if *remorantia, from rememorare, ‘remember’, ‘recall to mind’, from re-, ‘again’ + memorare, ‘bring to remembrance’, ‘mention’, ‘recount’, from memor, ‘remembering’, ‘mindful’]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

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• rememoraunce (n.): rememorance, rememoration; remembrance; [e.g.]: “And then cometh the sone hom with alle his frendes and maketh hem a gret feste. And the sone leteth make clene his fadir his heed (=father’s head). And the flessh of the heed, he sherith (=carves) hit and yif (=gives) hit to his moste special frendes, every man a litel, for a gret denté (=delicacy). And of the skulle of the hed the sone leteth make a coppe, and therof drynketh he al his lyfftyme (=lifetime) in rememoraunce of his fader. And fro thenne to go ten journeys thorgh the lond of the Gret Chane is a wel good ile and a gret kyngdom”. (from Chapter Twenty-Second: ‘Aray of The Court of Prester John’, in “The Book of John Mandeville”, 1357-1371; Edited by Tamarah Kohanski and C. David Benson)”. ~ (Online Neoteric Dictionary).

• rememorate† (tr.v.): to remember; revive in the memory; [e.g.]: “We shall ever find the like difficulties, whether we rememorate or learne anew”. (Lodowick Bryskett, “A Discourse of Civil Life”; 1606, p. 128). [from Late Latin rememoratus, pp. of rememorari, ‘remember’; from re-, ‘again’ + memorare, ‘bring to remembrance’, ‘mention’, ‘recount’, from memor, ‘remembering’, ‘mindful’]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• rememorate (intr.v.; obs.): remind, remember; (n.; arch.): rememoration, rememorations. [origin of rememorate: Late Latin rememoratus, past participle of rememorari, ‘to remember’]. ~ (Merriam-Webster Dictionary).

• rememorative† (adj.): recalling to mind; reminding; [e.g.]: “Forwhi, withoute rememoratijf signes of a thing, or of thingis, the rememoracioun, or the remembraunce, of thilk thing or thingis muste needis be the febler, as experience sufficientli witnessith; and therfore, sithen the bodi or the bonis or othere relikis of eny persoon is a fill nyȝ rememoratijf signe of the same persoon, it is ful resonable and ful worthi that where the bodi or bonis or eny releef or relik of a Seint mai be had, that it be sett up in a comoun place to which peple may haue her deuout neiȝing and accesse, for to haue her deuout biholding ther upon forte make the seid therbi remembraunce”. (Bishop Reginald Pecock, 1395-1460, in “The Repressor of Over Much Blaming of The Clergy”, p. 182; 1860, Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, London). [from French remémoratif = Spanish, Portuguese rememorativo; as rememorate + -ive]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• rememoration† (n.): remembrance; [e.g.]: “The story requires a particular rememoration”. (Jeremy Taylor, “Works”; ed. 1835, II. 256). [early modern English rememoracious; from Old French rememoration, French remémoration, from Medieval Latin rememoration(n-), from Late Latin rememorari, ‘remember’; see remember, rememorate]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• memorate† (tr.v.): to mention for remembrance; commemorate. [from Latin memoratus, pp. of memorare (hence Italian memorare = Spanish, Portuguese memorar = Old French membrer, menbrer, French mémorer), ‘bring to remembrance’, ‘mention’, ‘recount’, from memor, ‘remembering’; see memory; cf. commemorate and remember]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• senectitude (n.; literary): old age. ~ (Collins English Dictionary).

• senectitude (n.): the last stage of life; old age. [1790-1800; from Latin senect(ūs), ‘old age’ (senec-, extracted as singular from senex; genitive senis), ‘old man’ + -tūs, abstract nounal suffix]. ~ (Webster’s College Dictionary).

• senectitude (n.): old age; (synonyms): age, agedness, elderliness, senescence, year (used in plural). ~ (American Heritage Roget’s Thesaurus).

• senectitude (n.; rare): old age; [e.g.]: “Of senectitude, weary of its toils”. (Hugh Miller, “The Cruise of the Betsey”, 1862, chap x., p. 185). [from Medieval Latin senectitudo, for Latin senectus (senectut-), ‘old age’, from senex (sen-), ‘old’, ‘an old man’; compar senior, older; from senium, ‘old age’) = Sanskrit sana = Greek ἕνος, ‘old’; from the same Latin adjective are ultimately English senile, senior, signor, seignior, etc., sir, sire, sirrah, etc., and the same element exists in seneschal]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• senectitude (n.): old age. ~ (Webster’s 1913 Dictionary).

• senectitude (n.): the final stage of the normal life span. [etymology: borrowed from Medieval Latin senectitūdin-, senectitūdō, re-formation, with Latin -tūdin-, -tūdō, ‘-tude’, of Latin senectūt-, senectūs, ‘old age’, from senec-, variant stem of sen-, senex, ‘old’, ‘aged’ + -tūt-, ‘-tūs’, suffix of abstract nouns—more at senior²; first known use: 1796, in the meaning defined above]. ~ (Merriam-Webster Dictionary).

• senectitude (n.): old age; (synonyms): elderliness, oldness; agedness, senescence; oldhood; vetustity (rare); ancientness; hoariness; eld; (idiomatic): twilight years, sunset years; golden years; (US, slang): geezerdom; codgerhood; fogeydom. [etymology: from Latin senectus, ‘aged’, ‘old age’, from senex, ‘old’; cf. senescent; viz.: from Latin senescens, present participle of senescere, ‘to grow old’, from senere, ‘to be old’, from senex, ‘old’]. ~ (Wiktionary English Dictionary).

Random Literary Samples.
• “The play opens as Lear, the King of Britain, now aged and willing to enjoy a nice and peaceful *senectitude,* decides to step down and share his kingdom evenly among his three daughters depending on the love they profess for him. The two elder daughters manage to make up beautiful hypocritical speeches (...). In her turn, Cordelia does not accept to parade her pure feelings of affection for her dear father (...) the king hastily decides to divide his entire kingdom to his two elder daughters, while Cordelia, hitherto the King’s favourite daughter, is disinherited and banished from the royal mansion”. [emphasis added]. ~ (from “Loss of Identity in King Lear and the Theatre of The Absurd”, by Sara Moldoveanu; July 1, 2014, Journal of Research in Gender Studies).

• “Three-and-twenty years form a large portion of the short life of man—one-third, as nearly as can be expressed in unbroken numbers, of the entire term fixed by the psalmist, and full one-half, if we strike off the twilight periods of childhood and immature youth, and of *senectitude* weary of its toils”. [emphasis added]. ~ (page 185, Chapter Ten, “The Cruise of the Betsey”, by Hugh Miller, LL.D; 1862, Gould and Lincoln, Boston).

• “For his part, George Lyttleton (a retired Eton master of seventy-two years) assumes the role of rusticated codger, full of Victorian prejudice. ‘In ten years’ time’, he predicts, ‘I shall be left high and dry by modern literature, and in writing to me you will feel you have joined the spiritualists and are communicating with a ghost’. Counters Rupert Hart-Davis (his former student, a distinguished man of letters): ‘Your fear of *senectitude* and hardening of the literary arteries seems to me morbid’”. [emphasis added]. ~ (from “The Lyttleton Hart-Davis Letters”, ed. Roger Hudson; 2001, The Akadine Press).

• Tophet (n.): 1. in the Bible, a place outside Jerusalem where the Canaanites offered children as sacrifices to Moloch; 2. the place where wicked souls are punished after death; Hell. [Middle English, from Hebrew tōpet]. ~ (American Heritage Dictionary).

• Tophet or Topheth (n.): in the Old Testament a place in the valley immediately to the southwest of Jerusalem; the Shrine of Moloch, where human sacrifices were offered. [from Hebrew Tōpheth; II Kings 23:10; Jeremiah 7:31-32]. ~ (Collins English Dictionary).

• Tophet or Topheth (n.): 1. (in the Bible) a place near Jerusalem where children were offered as sacrifices to Moloch; 2. the place of punishment for the wicked after death; hell. [1350-1400; Middle English from Hebrew tōpheth, a place name]. ~ (Webster’s College Dictionary).

Random Literary Samples.

• [Miss Anne Mansfield Sullivan (1866-1936) to Mrs. Sophia C. Hopkins]: “The heat makes Helen languid and quiet. Indeed, the Tophetic weather has reduced us all to a semi-liquid state. Yesterday Helen took off her clothes and sat in her skin all the afternoon. When the sun got round to the window where she was sitting with her book, she got up impatiently and shut the window. But when the sun came in just the same, she came over to me with a grieved look and spelled emphatically: ‘Sun is bad boy. Sun must go to bed’”. ~ (page 325, June 5, 1887; “The Story of My Life”, by Helen Keller, ‘With Her Letters (1887-1901)’, edited by John Albert Macy; 1903, Doubleday, Page & Company, New York).

• weirdity (n.): 1. bizarre eccentricity which is not easily explained; weirdness; fantastic; bizarre; 2. a weird attitude or habit; weirdness. ~ (Neoteric Online Dictionary).