dote
pronunciation
How to pronounce dote in British English:
UK [dəʊt]
How to pronounce dote in American English:
US [doʊt]
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- Verb:
- be foolish or senile due to old age
- shower with love; show excessive affection for
Word Origin
- dote
- dote: [13] English may have borrowed dote from Middle Dutch doten ‘be silly’, but its ultimate origins are not known. To begin with it meant ‘be silly’ in English too (a sense now mainly preserved in its various derivatives), and ‘show excessive fondness’ did not develop until the 15th century. Related forms include dotage [14], where the notion of ‘simple-mindedness due to senility’ (implicit in the verb from earliest times) has passed to simply ‘senility’; dotterel [15], the name of a sort of plover, supposedly so called because it was foolish enough to allow itself to get caught; and dotty [19], an alteration of Scottish English dottle ‘fool’, which was a derivative of dote.=> dotage, dotterel, dotty
- dote (v.)
- c. 1200, "to be feeble-minded from age," from Middle Low German doten "be foolish," which is of unknown origin. Meaning "to be infatuated" is from late 15c. Related: Doted; dotes; doting.
Example
- 1. Give me a moment , and dote you in my way .
- 2. You dote on you very much the younger brother .
- 3. Only dote on the green , can incorporate the green .
- 4. Call it a national vice , but most englishmen dote on authoritarian women .
- 5. The children dote on her .