stultify

English

WOTD – 2 April 2007

Etymology

From Latin stultus (“stupid, foolish”), ‎ -ify. Compare Late Latin stultificō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈstʌltɪfaɪ/, /ˈstʌltəfaɪ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Verb

stultify (third-person singular simple present stultifies, present participle stultifying, simple past and past participle stultified)

1. (transitive) To stunt, inhibit (progress, ideas, etc.) or make dull and uninteresting, especially through routine that is overly restrictive or limiting. [attested from 1950s]

   Synonyms: inhibit, impair, dull

   Bureacracy and over-regulation have stultified the economy.

   • 1950 December, H. C. Casserley, “Locomotive Cavalcade, 1920-1950—6”, in Railway Magazine, page 847:

     From the economic point of view, the concentration of future construction into a dozen or so standard classes should be for the good, provided it is not adhered to too rigidly, and allowed to stultify progress in design and further efforts to improve the efficiency of the steam locomotive, which still remains the simplest and most reliable of machines ever invented by man.

   • 2017 December 16, Caitlin Lovinger, “Oh, One Last Thing”, in New York Times‎^[1]:

     I for one find the weekly puzzle plenty big enough to satisfy, and, without a good theme, to stultify.

   • 2023 December 16, “Robots Free Humans from Repetitive Tasks”, in American Institute of Economic Research‎^[2]:

     Robots excel at exactly the repetitive tasks that stultify the human mind and strain the human body.

2. (transitive, dated) To make useless or worthless. [from 19th c.]

   His business plan was stultified by new technologies.

   • 1886 May, Thomas Hardy, chapter XXII, in The Mayor of Casterbridge: The Life and Death of a Man of Character. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC:

     Here was a disaster—her ingenious scheme completely stultified.

   • 1905 April–October, Upton Sinclair, chapter XXXI, in The Jungle, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1906 February 26, →OCLC:

     Here is an historical figure whom all men reverence and love, whom some regard as divine; and who was one of us—who lived our life, and taught our doctrine. And now shall we leave him in the hands of his enemies—shall we allow them to stifle and stultify his example?

3. (transitive, dated) To cause to appear foolish; to deprive of strength; to stupefy. [from early 19th c.]

   Synonym: humiliate

   The politicians continued to stultify themselves.

   • 1855 June 25, Lord Seymour, “Education Bill”, in parliamentary debates (House of Commons)‎^[3], volume 139, column 79:

     Was the House to stultify itself by agreeing to the opposite principles of these opposed Bills?

   • 1891, Thomas Hardy, chapter XXXVII, in Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented […], volume II, London: James R[ipley] Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […], →OCLC:

     At breakfast, and while they were packing the few remaining articles, he showed his weariness from the night’s effort so unmistakeably that Tess was on the point of revealing all that had happened; but the reflection that it would anger him, grieve him, stultify him, to know that he had instinctively manifested a fondness for her of which his common-sense did not approve, that his inclination had compromised his dignity when reason slept, again deterred her.

   • a. 1897 [1842], chapter IX, in Katherine Prescott Wormeley, transl., The Two Brothers‎^[4], translation of La Rabouilleuse by Honoré de Balzac:

     The presence of a woman stultified the poor fellow, who was driven by passion on the one hand as violently as the lack of ideas, resulting from his education, held him back on the other. Paralyzed between these opposing forces, he had not a word to say, and feared to be spoken to, so much did he dread the obligation of replying.

   • 1871–1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XX, in Middlemarch […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book (please specify |book=I to VIII):

     If they had been at home, settled at Lowick in ordinary life among their neighbors, the clash would have been less embarrassing: but on a wedding journey, the express object of which is to isolate two people on the ground that they are all the world to each other, the sense of disagreement is, to say the least, confounding and stultifying.

   • 2017, “Why Me?” (27:33 from the start), in The Deuce, season 1, episode 6, spoken by Judge Aaron Bressler (Stephen Singer), HBO:

     Now what I think of these films as an individual is immaterial. As a judge, I cannot stultify myself to satisfy my personal feelings and inclinations.

4. (transitive, archaic, originally law) To prove to be of unsound mind or demonstrate someone's incompetence. [attested from late 17th c.]
   • 1798, Mathew Bacon, “Idiots and Lunaticks”, in Sir Henry Gwillim, editor, A New Abridgment of the Law‎^[5], volume 3, London: Alexander Strahan, →OCLC, page 539:

     And although, as hath been observed, according to the strict rules of law no person is allows to stultify himself, yet it seems that even at law the contracts of idiots and lunaticks, after office found, and the party legally commited, are void […]

Usage notes

Chiefly used in the adjectival form stultifying, rather than in its root form.

Derived terms

• self-stultifying

Translations

to cause to appear foolish

• Bulgarian: окарикатурявам (bg) (okarikaturjavam)
• German: blamieren (de), veralbern (de), lächerlich machen
• Italian: ridicolizzare, sbeffeggiare (it), schernire (it)
• Spanish: ridiculizar (es)

to deprive of strength or efficacy

• Bulgarian: омаловажавам (bg) (omalovažavam)
• Finnish: tylsistää
• Italian: vanificare (it), sbriciolare (it)

to prove to be of unsound mind

• Bulgarian: признавам за невменяем (priznavam za nevmenjaem)
• Italian: denigrare (it), smontare (it), smantellare (it)

See also

• dumbify
• stolid

Further reading

• “stultify”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Anagrams

• sluttify