dotage

plural dotages

1. countableuncountableDecline in judgment and other cognitive functions, associated with aging; senility.

   "More care!" said the old man in a shrill voice, […] 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.

   1840 April – 1841 November, Charles Dickens, “Chapter the First”, in The Old Curiosity Shop. A Tale. […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1841, →OCLC, page 41

   Synonyms: second childhood

2. countableuncountableFondness or attentiveness, especially to an excessive degree.

   Claudio And ſhe is exceeding wiſe. Prince In euery thing but in louing Benedicke. […] I would ſhee had beſtowed this dotage on mee, […]

   1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, Much Adoe about Nothing. […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii], signature D2, verso

3. countableuncountableFoolish utterance(s); drivel.

   No leſs are they out of the way in Philoſophy, peſtring their heads with the ſapleſs dotages of old Paris and Salamanca.

   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