Etymograph

English

mitigate

Mitigate comes from Middle English mitigaten ‘to relieve pain, soothe’, from mitigat ‘mitigated, alleviated, relived’, and ultimately from Latin mītis ‘gentle, mild, ripe’.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmītis‘gentle, mild, ripe’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEmītigō‘to make soft, ripe’
  3. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEmītigātus‘softened, ripened, having been made tender’perfect passive participle of mītigō
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500mitigat‘mitigated, alleviated, relived’
  5. Middle English, derivedc. 1150–1500mitigaten‘to relieve pain, soothe’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1795mitigate

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmītis‘gentle, mild, ripe’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEmītigō‘to make soft, ripe’
  3. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEmītigātus‘softened, ripened, having been made tender’perfect passive participle of mītigō
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500mitigat‘mitigated, alleviated, relived’
  5. Middle English, derivedc. 1150–1500mitigaten‘to relieve pain, soothe’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1795mitigate

Earliest quotation: 1795, George Washington: “Measures are pursuing to prevent or mitigate the usual…”

The story

From Middle English mitigaten (‘to relieve pain, soothe; (swelling) to abate; (hemorrhoids) to relieve; (the mind) to placate, appease; to end, check; to stop, cease’), from mitigat(e) (“mitigated, alleviated, relived”, also used as the past participle of mitigaten) + -en (verb-forming suffix), borrowed from Latin mītigātus, the perfect passive participle of mītigō (‘to make soft, ripe; to tame, pacify’), from mītis (‘gentle, mild, ripe’) + -igō (‘to do, make’), of uncertain origin, but perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *meh₁y- (‘mild, soft’).uncertain The source flags this step as uncertain.

Every English word from Latin mītis

Today it means

verb To reduce, lessen, or decrease and thereby to make less severe or easier to bear.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Latin mītis / mitigate

Shirt and support for this word