dotage

dote +‎ -age, from Middle English doten (“to dote”).

• (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.
   • 1841, Charles Dickens, chapter 1, in The Old Curiosity Shop:

     "More care!" said the old man. […] 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”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii], page 108, column 2:

     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:

     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 2018-08-12.