atrophy
noun /ˈætrəfi/
/ˈætrəfi/
[uncountable]- (medical) the condition of losing fat, muscle, strength, etc. in a part of the body because it does not have enough blood
- (medical) muscle atrophy
- (figurative, formal) The cultural life of the country will sink into atrophy unless more writers and artists emerge.
Word Originlate 16th cent.: from French atrophier (verb), atrophie (noun), from late Latin atrophia, from Greek, ‘lack of food’, from a- ‘without’ + trophē ‘food’.