gravitate

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin gravitāt-, the participial stem of gravitō,^[2][3][4][5] a verb that Etymonline finds in 16th-century scientific writing;^[6] Barnhart, Dictionary.com and Merriam-Webster Unabridged name its past participle, gravitātus.^[7][8][9] The verb was formed from Latin gravitās (“weight, heaviness”), the source of gravity,^{[2][6][10][9]} from gravis (“heavy”),^[2][6] from Proto-Indo-European *gwere- (“heavy”).^[6] The classical Latin verb was gravō (“to make heavy, burden, oppress”).^[6] Klein says that Isaac Newton coined the modern Latin verb.^[11] The OED compares Middle French graviter of the 17th century.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To exert weight or pressure, or of a heavy body, to move downward by its own weight: 1644, in Digby's Two Treatises.^[2][7][6] The sense is now obsolete.^[2][6][3]

Semantic evolution

The figurative sense, to move toward something as a natural goal or to be strongly drawn to it, appears early, in 1673 in Marvell's Rehearsal Transpros'd;^[2][7][6] the scientific sense, to move or tend to move by the force of gravity, followed in 1693, in Bentley's Boyle Lectures.^[2][6] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the scientific sense to 1692.^[9] Johnson (1755) defined the verb as "to tend to the center of attraction", quoting Blackmore's poem Creation.^[12] The old sense "to press downward" lasted until about 1808,^[2] and a transitive use, to weigh down, is recorded once, in 1754.^[2] From 1823 the verb also meant to sink or settle to a lower level, literally and figuratively,^[2] and in diamond mining it was used from 1894 for working washed gravel so that the heavy stones sink to the bottom.^[2] The noun gravitation is also recorded from 1644.^[7]

Timeline

• 1644 – to exert weight or pressure; to move downward by its own weight (obsolete by 1808).^[2][7]
• 1673 – figurative, to tend toward something as a natural goal; to be strongly attracted.^[2][7][6]
• 1693 – to move or tend to move under the force of gravitation.^[2][6]
• 1754 – transitive, to weigh down (obsolete).^[2]
• 1823 – to sink or settle to a low level.^[2]
• 1894 – transitive, in diamond mining, to make the heavy stones in gravel sink.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To be drawn toward a place, person or thing, as if by a natural force: After dinner the guests gravitated to the terrace.^[13][9][2]
2. (physics) To move, or tend to move, under the influence of gravity or gravitation.^[13][9][2]
3. To sink or settle to a lower level.^[13][2]

Word family

• gravitater
• gravitative

Related words

• gravitation
• gravity
• aggravate
• grief
• gravitas

Usage notes

The OED also records an adjective gravitate, "endowed with gravity", formed from Latin gravitās and the suffix -ate, in Coleridge (1827).^[2]

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 o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins