Hypertext Webster Gateway: "inefficacious"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Inefficacious \In*ef`fi*ca"cious\, a. [Pref. in- not +
efficacious: cf. F. inefficace, L. inefficax.]
Not efficacious; not having power to produce the effect
desired; inadequate; incompetent; inefficient; impotent.
--Boyle.
The authority of Parliament must become inefficacious .
. . to restrain the growth of disorders. --Burke.
Note: Ineffectual, says Johnson, rather denotes an actual
failure, and inefficacious and habitual impotence to
any effect. But the distinction is not always observed,
nor can it be; for we can not always know whether means
are inefficacious till experiment has proved them
ineffectual. Inefficacious is therefore sometimes
synonymous with ineffectual.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
inefficacious
adj : lacking the power to produce a desired effect; "laws that
are inefficacious in stopping crime" [ant: {efficacious}]
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