etiolated

adj

1. Of a plant or part of a plant: pale and weak because of sunlight deprivation or excessive exposure to sunlight.

   “[T]he external leaves which enjoy the light are perfectly green, while those within, naturally or artificially covered up and involved in darkness, are blanched or etiolated; they are thereby rendered white, soft, delicate, and tender, and lose the taste and flavour of the native plant in its green state, or retain these very slightly.”

   “If there is too great an accumulation of oxygen, as when a plant is kept in a dark place, then it will grow towards the nearest ray of light, which if it does not reach, it will remain white, or etiolated, and sickly.”

   “They had been so long accustomed to nestle in their old dwellings sheltered in the narrow closes, "Piled deep and massy, close and high," that they seemed to regard the exposure to open streets and broad thoroughfares pretty much as some etiolated hot-house exotic might be supposed to reflect on its being turned out to the open garden.”

   “In a report of 1901, the "triple response" of etiolated pea seedlings (growth inhibition, thickening of the subapical region, horizontal nutation) was observed to occur in the presence of illuminating gas and ethylene was identified as the inducing agent.”

   “Seedlings are elongated and have closed cotyledons in the dark (aetiolated) while the hypocotyls are short and the cotyledons are open in the light (de-aetiolated).”

2. Of a plant: intentionally grown in the dark.

   “It is a fact well known to gardeners, that plants, when blanched, lose many of their active properties; and dandelion thus prepared, is frequently eaten on the continent in salads; [...] The French eat the young roots, and the etiolated leaves, with thin slices of bread and butter; [...]”

   “When deprived of light, says Dr. Irvine, all plants nearly agree in the qualities of their juices. The most pungent vegetables then grow insipid; the highest flavoured, inodorous; and those of the most variegated colours are of a uniform whiteness. [...] The results of analysis perfectly accord with these observations; for etiolated plants are found to yield more saccharine matter, carbonic acid and water, and less inflammable matter than those which are green.”

3. (broadly)Of an animal or person: having an ashen or pale appearance; also, haggard or thin; physically weak.

   “Birds inhabiting desert regions have an etiolated appearance.”

   “[I]t muſt be obſerved that both vegetable and animal ſubſtances become bleached white by the ſun-beams when they are dead, as cabbage-ſtalks, bones, ivory, tallow, bees-wax, linen and cotton cloth; and hence I ſuppoſe the copper-coloured natives of ſunny countries might become etiolated or blanched by being kept from their infancy in the dark, or removed for a few generations to more northerly climates.”

   “It is also to be noticed that men who spend their days in the most sedentary occupations, and often in a most confined atmosphere, do not suffer from this pain of the side as women so confined and so occupied do. [...] Tailors, again, who often work under conditions not very dissimilar from those of milliners and dressmakers, and often get almost similarly ætiolated, do not suffer from this form of pain as these latter do.”

   “She had long almond eyes, one longer and larger than the other, that gave to her narrow, etiolated face, an exalted, mystic air.”

   “Already on the walk from the station the May sunshine had made him feel dirty and etiolated, a creature of indoors, with the sooty dust of London in the pores of his skin.”

4. (figuratively)Lacking in vigour; anemic, feeble.

   “Convinced republican that I am, and foe of the Prince [Charles, Prince of Wales] who talks to plants and wants to be crowned "head of all faiths" as well as the etiolated Church of England, I find myself pierced by a pang of sympathy.”

   “Does he go to the museum in order to steal the Mona Lisa if it is there and unguarded; or does he go there anyway, but will seize the chance if it presents himself? [...] Insofar as his intention to steal is not given concrete actualisation, as the meaning or pattern of his actions, its culpability is (like its existence) aetiolated; but I see nothing problematic in saying that he is culpable for forming, maintaining and acting on a wrongful intention.”

verb

1. (form-of, participle, past)simple past and past participle of etiolate