struldbruggian

Adjective capitalized: Struldbruggian

Struldbruggian (comparative more Struldbruggian, superlative most Struldbruggian)

1. Having or relating to an unsatisfactory form of immortality accompanied by aging and disease.
   • The methods employed to select economic and political leaders must be modified in a manner suited to allow, in the future, a sufficient number of places to those under (say) fifty; otherwise, given both present methods of selection and prospective changes in age composition, too much power may pass...1949, Logan Wilson, William L[ester] Kolb, “Societies: Demographic and Ecological Elements”, in Robert K[ing] Merton, editor, Sociological Analysis: An Introductory Text and Case Book, New York...
   • Here are all the elements of a truly creative scepticism blended for once into a manageable and yet an infinitely expandable pattern. It might have required at least ten more years (if Adams could have counted on escaping Struldbruggian senescence) for him to set this insight to work.1966, Margaret L[enore] Wiley, “Henry Adams, Uneasy Sceptic”, in Creative Sceptics, London: George Allen and Unwin, →OCLC, section V, page 307