second childhood
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.48 in modern English
28
Scrabble Score
15
Letters
3
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The period or state of cognitive decline of an elderly person, characterized by childlike judgment and behavior.
noun
A childlike state in any adult, resulting from mental illness, trauma, or other conditions.
Example Sentences
- "King David being in his childhood, an old man, in his second childhood, for all old men are twice children, as the proverb is, Senex bis puer."
- ""You think I'm in my second childhood, I know!" croaked the old woman."
- "Old age is not always second childhood, says he. "There is often, instead, a second prime.""
- "For myself, although at the commencement of the voyage I had been in bad health, and was at all times of a delicate constitution, I suffered less than any of us, being much less reduced in frame, and retaining my powers of mind in a surprising degree, while the rest were completely prostrated in intellect, and seemed to be brought to a species of second childhood, generally simpering in their expressions, with idiotic smiles, and uttering the most absurd platitudes."
- "But take care of yourself; a man's second childhood begins when a woman gets hold of him."