dormant
pronunciation
How to pronounce dormant in British English:
UK [ˈdɔːmənt]
How to pronounce dormant in American English:
US [ˈdɔːrmənt]
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- Adjective:
- of e.g. volcanos; temporarily inactive
- lying with head on paws as if sleeping
- in a condition of biological rest or suspended animation
- not active but capable of becoming active
Word Origin
- dormant
- dormant: [14] Like dormitory and dormer, dormant comes ultimately from Latin dormīre ‘sleep’, which is related to Sanskrit drā- ‘sleep’ and Russian dremat’ ‘doze’. Dormant was borrowed from French dormant, the present participle of dormir ‘sleep’, while dormitory [15] comes from Latin dormītōrium, a derivative of the past participle of dormīre. Dormer [16], from Old French dormeor, a derivative of dormir, originally signified a ‘dormitory window’. (It is not clear whether dormouse [15] is related, but if it is it would mean literally ‘sleeping mouse’, or conceivably even ‘sleeper’, from French dormeuse, the feminine of dormeur ‘sleeper’.)=> dormer, dormitory
- dormant (adj.)
- late 14c., "fixed in place," from Old French dormant (12c.), present participle of dormir "to sleep," from Latin dormire "to sleep," from PIE root *drem- "to sleep" (cognates: Old Church Slavonic dremati "to sleep, doze," Greek edrathon "I slept," Sanskrit drati "sleeps"). Meaning "in a resting situation" (in heraldry) is from c. 1500. Meaning "sleeping' is from 1620s.
Example
- 1. Becoming dormant means you live to fight another day .
- 2. Several hours later my google + link lay dormant .
- 3. In the 1970s , japan 's now dormant union movement was in its heyday .
- 4. Still , few believed that anything could survive after lying dormant for so long .
- 5. Any dormant bacteria in the polar ice could thus spring to life during these relatively balmy periods .