English
imagine
Imagine comes from Middle English ymagynen, from Middle French imaginer, from Latin imāginor, from imāgō ‘copy, likeness, image’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEimāgō‘a copy, likeness’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEimāginor‘to imagine’accusative singular of imāgō
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600imaginer
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500ymagynen‘to imagine’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1595–1596imagine
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEimāgō‘a copy, likeness’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEimāginor‘to imagine’accusative singular of imāgō
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600imaginer
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500ymagynen‘to imagine’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1595–1596imagine
Earliest quotation: c. 1595–1596, William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame: “Or in the night, imagining ſome feare, / How…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *h₂eym- ‘to imitate’
emulate, imitation, imitate, emulation, imitator, 8 more
through Latin imāgō ‘a copy, likeness, image’
Today it means
verb To form a mental image of something; to envision or create something in one's mind.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin imāgō / imagine