dotage

From Middle English dotage, from doten (“to dote”) + -age; equivalent to dote +‎ -age.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈdoʊtɪd͡ʒ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈdəʊtɪdʒ/

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dotage (countable and uncountable, plural dotages)

1. Decline in judgment and other cognitive functions, associated with aging; senility.
   • 1840 April – 1841 November, Charles Dickens, “Chapter the First”, in The Old Curiosity Shop. A Tale. […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1841, →OCLC, page 41:

     "More care!" said the old man in a shrill voice, […] there were in his face marks of deep and anxious thought which convinced me that he could not be, as I had been at first inclined to suppose, in a state of dotage or imbecility.

2. Fondness or attentiveness, especially to an excessive degree.
   • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, Much Adoe about Nothing. […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii], signature D2, verso:

     Claudio And ſhe is exceeding wiſe.
     Prince In euery thing but in louing Benedicke. […] I would ſhee had beſtowed this dotage on mee, […]

3. Foolish utterance(s); drivel.
   • 1642 April, John Milton, An Apology for Smectymnuus; republished in A Complete Collection of the Historical, Political, and Miscellaneous Works of John Milton, […], volume I, Amsterdam [actually London: s.n.], 1698, →OCLC, page 193:

     No leſs are they out of the way in Philoſophy, peſtring their heads with the ſapleſs dotages of old Paris and Salamanca.

• (loss of mental acuity associated with aging): second childhood

• dogate, goated, togaed

From doten +‎ -age.

• IPA^(key): /dɔːˈtaːd͡ʒ(ə)/, /ˈdɔːtad͡ʒ(ə)/

dotage (uncountable) (Late Middle English)

1. Behaviour that is stupid or ill-advised; ridiculousness or insanity:
   1. Ill-thought or fatuitous love or romantic feelings.
   2. Weakening of the mind due to age; dotage.
2. Disintegration, rotting, or collapsing.

• English: dotage

• “dōtāǧe, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 12 August 2018.