{"era":"current","word":"degenerate","meaning":"having fallen below the proper standard or having declined in quality or character","children":[{"era":"classical","word":"degenerare","meaning":"to become unlike one's kind; to decline","children":[{"era":"classical","word":"de + genus","meaning":"\"off, away from\" + \"birth, race, kind\"","children":[{"era":"prehistory","word":"*gene-","meaning":"to give birth, beget","children":[],"language":"Proto-Indo-European"}],"language":"Latin"}],"language":"Latin"}],"language":"Modern English"}