Etiolation

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˌiːtiəˈleɪʃən/

Definitions

1. The process involves a plant growing with insufficient light, resulting in elongated stems and pale leaves, and it can also refer to a lack of development in other contexts
2. This term describes a condition where a plant exhibits excessive elongation and paleness due to low light conditions, which may also metaphorically apply to stunted growth in ideas
3. It denotes the phenomenon where inadequate light causes plants to grow tall and weak with reduced chlorophyll, and it can also symbolize undernourishment in various aspects of development

Etymology: Etiolation names the pale, weak growth that plants produce when they are kept from light, and the word began as a gardener's term. Its root is the French verb "étioler," meaning "to blanch," which in turn grew from "étiole," a word for a stalk or straw. The image is of a plant that has been denied sunlight and so turns pale and spindly, its stem stretching toward whatever faint glow it can find. English borrowed the French past participle "étiolé" and then made a noun from it, so that a process as much as a condition came to bear the name. Today the word is used most often in botany, but it has also travelled into figurative speech, where it describes anything that has grown weak or drained of vigour from lack of exposure to its proper conditions.

Synonyms: blanching

Antonyms: greening