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Depreciation

Economics
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

The gradual loss of value, quality, or power over time; used metaphorically in modern verse for aging, decay, or faded ideals.

Detailed Definition
Depreciation is the reduction in an asset's recorded or market value because of age, wear, obsolescence, or changing demand. In poetry, it can lend economic force to images of rusting machines, abandoned houses, aging goods, and discarded technologies. The term can also expose the cruelty of treating people as assets whose worth declines, allowing a poem to resist market measures of beauty, usefulness, and age.
Example
Example in poetry:
A poet describes an abandoned factory whose rusted machines undergo depreciation in both value and appearance; In a family poem, an old car loses value each year while gaining sentimental meaning; A speaker watches a childhood house deteriorate and uses depreciation to connect financial loss with memory; A city poem can portray neglected buildings as depreciated assets, revealing the social cost of disinvestment
Additional Notes
Depreciation affects cars, machinery, and other assets as they age or become obsolete. It differs from inflation, which reduces money’s purchasing power.
Also Known As
Decline in Value
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