n. pl. atÂ·roÂ·phies. 1  1. A wasting or decrease in size of a body organ, tissue, or part owing to disease, injury, or lack of use: muscular atrophy of a person affected with paralysis. 2  2. A wasting away, deterioration, or diminution: intellectual atrophy.
August 2004: The Statue of Liberty reopens for the first time since Sept. 11, 2001. The Statue of Liberty reopens with monitors that show emergency exits. At the bottom of every monitor is a scrolling message: âIf you see something, say something.â.
But in fact impact was a verb long before it was a noun (the verb dates from the early 1600s; the noun from the late 1700s). Nor can the animosity to the figurative use of the verb stem from its novelty in the 1960s, since this use dates from the 1930s, allowing plenty of time for people to grow accustomed to it.