Macilent

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˈmas.ɪ.lənt/

Definitions

1. Possessing a slender and emaciated form that indicates a significant lack of body fat or muscle mass
2. Exhibiting an extremely lean and fragile physique as a result of undernourishment or wasting away
3. Having a starkly slender and wasted appearance that suggests severe deficiency in bodily tissue

Etymology: Macilent describes someone so thin from hunger that they look almost wasted away, and its ancestry runs through Latin words for scarcity rather than for slimness. The Latin "macer" meant lean or meagre, and it sat alongside "maciēs", which could mean leanness but also poverty. Hunger and want were close companions in that vocabulary: a body that had gone thin usually had not been eating well, and the word carried that sense of deprivation along with the physical outline. English borrowed the adjective from Latin "macilentus", a derivative of "maciēs" meaning lean, thin or meagre. The same root reaches modern English in a more familiar form, through "emaciate" and "meagre", so macilent is a close relative of words most readers already use without thinking about their hunger-tinged origins.

Synonyms: thin, lean, emaciated

Antonyms: fat, obese, plump