Etiolize

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To make a plant pale and weak by growing it in insufficient light
2. To induce an unhealthy pale appearance and leggy growth in vegetation by depriving it of direct sunlight
3. To cause a plant to exhibit elongated stems and lack of color as a result of inadequate exposure to light

Etymology: Etiolate comes from French "étioler," which meant to make a plant pale and weak, and that French verb is itself a borrowing from an older French word "estiole," a stalk or stem. Its sense of blanched, spindly growth is literal: a plant grown in the dark loses its green pigment and stretches toward any light it can find, producing long, pale, fragile stems. The word moved into English as a term for this physical process, and it later gained a figurative sense. People and things can be etiolated too, growing weak, pallid, or unhealthy from lack of exposure to what they need, whether sunlight, fresh air, or stimulation. The shift from the plant in a dark cellar to a sheltered, drained person follows the same logic: something deprived of its natural conditions becomes thin and colorless.

Synonyms: pale, bleach, whiten, decolorize, blanch

Antonyms: color, darken, shade, tint, pigment