English → Latin
“fade” in Latin
dēflōrēscōto shed blossoms; to fade, wither, decay, declinemarceōto wither, droop, shrink, shrivel; to be faint, weak, lazy or languidmarcēscōto begin to wither, pine away; to grow feeble; to pine or languishēmarcēscōto wither or dwindle away; to disappeardēcolōrōto discolour, stain or deface; to disgrace; to corruptflaccēscōto wilt or wither, droop or languish; to (begin to) flagmarciduswithered, dropping, rotten; apathetic, languid; exhausted, feeble, weakfrōnsthe forehead, brow, front; the brow or countenance as an indicator of the feelings; as the mirror of a person's characte
The English word fade itself goes back to Latin fatuus, through *fatidus.
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
fade
deflorescere (PROP., of flowers; also figuratively; e.g., of delights; amores et deliciae mature et celeriter deflorescunt, Quint.): marcere (to wither; PROP. of garlands, etc., poetically; IMPROP., Liv.; not Cic. or Caes.): marcescere (to begin to wither; not Cic. or Caes.: Plin.; also, IMPROP., of colors, Plin., 37, 9, 41): emarcescere (only figuratively, and extremely rare): decolorari or decolorem fieri (to lose its color; general term): flaccescere (to grow flaccid by losing its moisture; frons, Vitr.).
TRANS. To cause to fade (= wither), either by circumlocution with efficere ut deflorescat, marceat, etc.; marcidum reddere; or siccare, torrere, torrefacere (to dry up).
To cause to fade (= grow pa ler), colorem ex aliqua re eripere (to take out the color; e.g., solis radii lambendo colorem... eripiunt); *pallidum or decolorem reddere: hebetare (to make a bright object dull, Plin.).
Faded, marcidus (mostly poetically and post-Augustan): marcens (mostly poetically; both, also, IMPROP.): qui (quae, quod) defloruit.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for fade?
- The usual Latin words for “fade” are dēflōrēscō, marceō, marcēscō; also ēmarcēscō, dēcolōrō, flaccēscō. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.