English
meditate
Meditate comes from Latin meditātus ‘meditating, having meditated’, from meditor ‘to think or reflect upon, consider, design,…’, and ultimately from medeor ‘to heal, to cure, to remedy’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmedeor‘to heal, to cure, to remedy’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEmeditor‘to think or reflect upon, consider, design, purpose, intend’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEmeditātus‘meditating, having meditated’perfect active participle of meditor
- Englishearliest quotation 1761meditate
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmedeor‘to heal, to cure, to remedy’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEmeditor‘to think or reflect upon, consider, design, purpose, intend’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEmeditātus‘meditating, having meditated’perfect active participle of meditor
- Englishearliest quotation 1761meditate
Earliest quotation: 1761, John Toland: “[…] yet I can by no means be persuaded…”
first attested First attested in 1560 (as stated in the etymology)
The story
First attested in 1560; borrowed from Latin meditātus, perfect active participle of meditor (‘to think or reflect upon, consider, design, purpose, intend’) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), morphologically as if frequentative of medeor (‘to heal, to cure, to remedy’); in sense and in form near to Ancient Greek μελετάω (meletáō, “to care for, attend to, study, practise, etc.”).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *med- ‘to measure, give advice, heal’
must, model, modern, mode, mood, mud, module, mold, blackmail, modal, modus, modulate, mote, moulder, modifiable, mete, 29 more
through Proto-Italic *medos ‘measure’
commodity, modification, mould, modulation, molding, modulus, modicum, modulo, medicate, 10 more
through Latin medeor ‘to heal, to cure, to remedy’
medical, medicine, medication, remedy, med, medicinal, medic, 7 more
Today it means
verb To contemplate; to keep the mind fixed upon something; to study.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin medeor / meditate