enervate
to drain strength or vitality
Roots
- e- / ex-: out, out of, away, or forth
- nerv / nerve: sinew, nerve, or strength
Other words with the nerv / nerve root
- nerve: a fiber carrying feeling or a person's courage
E- gives out and nerv gives nerve or sinew: enervate is strength taken out.
The humid afternoon enervated the runners before the race had even begun.
Enervate is not ordinary tiredness. The old image is strength taken out of the nerves or sinews; in modern use, heat, illness, fear, or argument can leave the body or will drained.