I've always spelled it "decrepid", yet though it was yet another British vs. American spelling. Decrepid was once the preferred spelling, yet apparently no more. So, just as a sanity check, am I the only one still spelling it like that, or is this another 'dictionary' vs 'everyday' usage?
Honestly, I've only ever spelled it "decrepit," so I doubt I'm much help in this case...
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/decrepid
Decrepid was a common alternative spelling of decrepit until the 1820s, gradually declining in usage as spelling became standardized, until by the 1920s it was 40 times rarer than decrepit.[1] Some orthographic works were advising against decrepid, calling it a misspelling, by the mid to late 19th century.[2][3]
Yep, that was the same reference (different source though) that I found. Yet as noted, though there are the accepted dictionary definitions and then there are the 'common' if infrequent usages, which I run across ALL the time. So again, I was wondering whether anyone has heard the 'regional' usage (similar to "all y'all grits").
Though I should actually check the UrbanDictionary.com, which does list it, with common usage (though most decidedly NOT a lot). So now I feel better about using it.
But feel free to attack my age, my mental state or whatever else, since I'm used (i.e. fed-up, just not militantly so) with it.
Decrepid was a common alternative spelling of decrepit until the 1820
That's what Google Ngrams showed too, hence my 200 years observation.
Etymologically 'decrepit' is correct, so how and why 'decrepid' rose and fell is something of a mystery.
AJ
Not sure which is correct, but whatever it is, it's an accurate description of how I feel when I get up in the morning.
Yep, those are the usages that urbandictionary.com uses, describing both the looks and attitudes of those who are older and, not quite all there, like me! ;)
However, that's not precisely how I used it in my story (I've finally gone back, switched to another compatible older MacBook Pro laptop and am now restoring ALL the stories that M$ Word never ALLOWED me to correct, and there were a LOT of them.
Only, for whatever reason--probably because it's an incompatible version for an older system--LibreOffice crashes nearly continuously, so this is likely to take a very LONG time (I spent most of today on a single, incomplete story). So, my version of LO is most definitely decrepid!
I'd use decrepit.
Or maybe... battered
broken-down
creaky
dilapidated
feeble
flimsy
frail
infirm
ramshackle
rickety
run down
seedy
shabby
Just an ideer!
--Shinerdrinker