hesitate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin haesitātus, the past participle of haesitō (“to stick fast, stammer, be undecided”),^[2][3][4][5] a frequentative of haereō (“to stick, cling, hold fast”),^[2][6][7][8] the verb behind adhere.^[9][7] The OED compares hésiter,^[2] and Barnhart thinks the French verb may have had some influence, or that the English verb may be a back-formation from hesitation.^[10] Merriam-Webster, Skeat and Barnhart compare Lithuanian gaišti (“to loiter, delay”),^[4][8][10] and Barnhart gives the root as Proto-Indo-European *ghais-.^[10] Ayto explains the underlying idea as being held back or "stuck", or in speech stammering, and so unable to act or speak promptly.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

To hold back in doubt or indecision; to find it hard to decide: 1623, in Henry Cockeram's English Dictionarie.^[2][11] Merriam-Webster gives 1598 for this sense,^[4] Barnhart finds the participle hesitating, slow to act, probably before 1622,^[10] and Etymonline dates the verb to the 1620s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The Latin verb already combined the ideas of sticking fast, stammering and being undecided,^[2][12] and English took over all three senses.^[2] The sense "to stammer or falter in speech" is recorded from 1706, in Phillips's New World of Words,^[2][11] and a transitive use, to say something hesitantly, from 1734, in Pope's Epistle to Arbuthnot:^[2] "Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike".^[13] Johnson (1755) defined the verb as to be doubtful, to delay, to pause, to make difficulty.^[13] The construction with an infinitive, as in hesitate to, is recorded from 1755.^[2] In the 20th century the verb was used for a step in dancing (1914) and for moving in a faltering way (1908, in H. G. Wells).^[2][11]

Timeline

• 1598 – Merriam-Webster's date for the sense of holding back in doubt.^[4]
• 1623 – to hold back in doubt or indecision.^[2]
• 1706 – to stammer or falter in speech.^[2]
• 1734 – transitive, to say with hesitation.^[2]
• 1755 – with an infinitive, hesitate to.^[2]
• 1908 – to move in a faltering way.^[2]
• 1914 – a step in dancing.^[2]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To pause or hold back because of doubt or indecision; to be slow to act or decide: She hesitated at the door before knocking.
2. To be unwilling or reluctant to do something, often from scruple: I wouldn't hesitate to recommend him.
3. To falter or pause in speaking; to stammer.
4. To say something in a hesitant way.

Word family

• hesitater
• hesitatingly
• hesitant
• hesitation
• hesitative

Related words

• adhere
• cohere

References

1. ^ a b 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
12. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ 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.