celibate

Etymology

The noun for the state of celibacy, recorded first, is borrowed from French célibat,^[2][3][4] from Latin caelibātus (“the unmarried state”),^[2][3][5] from caelebs (“unmarried”), stem caelib-.^[6][7][8] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster Unabridged take that noun directly from the Latin one.^[8][7] The adjective arose separately, in the early 19th century, and its formation is explained in several ways.^[2][4][3] The OED, Barnhart, Klein and Merriam-Webster Unabridged form it on the Latin stem with the English suffix -ate,^[2][8][9][7] while the Shorter Oxford takes it from English from celibacy, after pairs such as magistracy and magistrate,^[4] and Etymonline from the older noun or from celibacy, like private beside privacy.^[3] The further origin of the Latin adjective is uncertain.^[9][10] Barnhart, Klein and Merriam-Webster Unabridged reconstruct a compound meaning "living alone", comparing a Sanskrit word for "alone" and Gothic 𐌻𐌹𐌱𐌰𐌽 (liban, “to live”).^[8][9][7] De Vaan finds that doubtful and prefers Proto-Indo-European *keh₂i-lo- (“whole”), through a noun for wholeness that may have come to mean celibacy; he leaves the -b- of the Latin word unexplained.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The state of celibacy: the first record is in Bishop J. King's Vitis Palatina (1614),^[2] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives the same year.^[7] Etymonline says that the word meant this alone until the early 19th century, and especially the celibacy required of Catholic clergy.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) knew only the noun for "single life", quoting Graunt on males who "oblige themselves to celibate".^[12] A verb, to restrain from marriage, appears from 1659 in Evelyn's translation of Chrysostom.^[2] The adjective followed in the 1820s, and the noun for a person after that;^[2][3] Barnhart suggests that this noun comes from the adjective, perhaps influenced by the older noun.^[8] Other nouns for such a person were celibatarian, celibatist and celibian.^[3] The older noun is now archaic.^[4] All of these first concerned marriage, and the OED's definitions of the adjective and the person do not go beyond that.^[2] The sense of abstaining from sexual intercourse stands beside "unmarried" in the Shorter Oxford and Collins.^[4][10]

Timeline

• 1614 – noun, the state of celibacy, or an order of celibates, in Bishop J. King.^[2][7] Etymonline dates it to the 1610s.^[3]
• 1659 – verb, to restrain from marriage, in Evelyn.^[2]
• 1827 – adjective, unmarried, bound not to marry, in Southey's letters.^[2] Barnhart has 1829 and Etymonline 1825.^[8][3]
• 1869 – noun, a person who leads a single life or is bound not to marry, in Martineau.^[2][8] Etymonline has 1838.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Abstaining from sexual intercourse, often because of a religious vow: He stayed celibate through his years at the monastery.^[10][4]
2. Unmarried, especially by vow.^[10][2]

Noun

1. A person who is unmarried or abstains from sex, especially one bound by a religious vow.^[10][7][4]
2. (archaic) The state of celibacy, or an order of people who live in it.^{[2][4][7][12]}

Word family

• noncelibate

Related words

• celibacy

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.