From Wiktionary: 3. (with infinitive) to be too weak to do a thing, to be unable
Sample using this definition:
This friction <astheneo-s> to resist the force.
An answer in the negative counts.
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nebuch
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Noun: asthenia Adj & noun: asthenic Maybe you can coin a verb. – Arm the good guys in America Dec 29 '16 at 01:18
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“This friction to be weak or feeble to resist the force” doesn’t make much sense. Are you looking for an adverb: “This friction weakly resists the force”? – Jim Dec 29 '16 at 01:31
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@Jim see the definition from Wiktionary – nebuch Dec 29 '16 at 01:32
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I see. So can you say, “This friction asthenically attempts to resist the force.”? – Jim Dec 29 '16 at 01:40
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After various types of searches, I found that the French verb asthénier appears to be ultimately derived from the noun ἀσθένεια, but the online French-English dictionaries I consulted didn't know the verb asthénier.
English has the nouns asthenia and myasthenia, which are also based on ἀσθένεια. There is also legasthenia (which looks similar to "Legasthenie", the German word for dyslexia).
I have not found online evidence for the existence of the verb "asthenize".
While you might coin the verb "asthenize", it is not clear whether it would fit into the sentence "This friction to resist the force." Verbs on -ize/-ise usually imply a change, and asthenize would probably mean "to become weaker", which would not make sense in this sentence.
Tsundoku
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Is there a pattern of English verb formation from French I could follow to coin this? (-ize seems off.) – nebuch Dec 29 '16 at 01:27
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No such verb in the Oxford English Dictionary but that's not to say one can't coin it. – Arm the good guys in America Dec 29 '16 at 01:29
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@nebuch As Clare said, you can still coin the verb "asthenize" if it does not exist. You'll probably need to provide a definition when you introduce it in a text, etc. With regard to verb formation, see also Suffixes for verbification: -ify, -icise, -ificate. – Tsundoku Dec 29 '16 at 01:31
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@Jim You're right. The intended meaning for the missing verb seems to be "is to weak", i.e. something like a stative verb, whereas asthenize sounds like a dynamic verb to me. – Tsundoku Dec 29 '16 at 01:44