infatuate

Etymology

The adjective is borrowed from Latin īnfatuātus, the past participle of īnfatuō (“to make a fool of”),^[2][3][4][5] formed from in- and fatuus (“foolish”).^[4][6][7][8] The verb is from the adjective or from the Latin participial stem īnfatuāt-;^[2][9] the American Heritage Dictionary takes the prefix as the causative in-,^[6] Etymonline and Hoad as in- meaning "in".^[4][7] Weekley compares French affoler and assoter, French verbs of the same meaning, and English dote and fond.^[10] The Latin adjective is also the source of fatuous.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

As an adjective, infatuated, besotted: 1471, in George Ripley's Compound of Alchymy.^[2][3] The verb is first recorded in 1533, in Tyndale, meaning to turn counsels to folly, to show something up as foolish, to frustrate.^[2][8][3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense of the verb, to make plans or counsels come to nothing by making them foolish, was used until the early 18th century.^[2][9] From about 1555 it was also used of a person, to make utterly foolish or irrational,^[2] and Johnson (1755) defined it as to strike with folly or to deprive of understanding.^[11] The narrower sense, to fill someone with a foolish passion beyond the control of reason, is dated 1567 by Barnhart and to the 1620s by Etymonline;^[3][4] the OED notes that it now chiefly means an intense, usually romantic and short-lived passion.^[2] The adjective is now rare outside Scots, where it meant mad or foolish,^[9][12][13] and the noun, an infatuated person, is literary.^[13][8] The noun infatuation is recorded from 1649.^[3]

Timeline

• 1471 – adjective, infatuated.^[2][3]
• 1533 – verb, to turn counsels to foolishness, to frustrate (obsolete by 1724).^[2][8]
• c. 1555 – to make a person foolish or irrational.^[2]
• 1567 – to inspire with a foolish passion.^[3]
• 1649 – the noun infatuation.^[3]
• 1712 – to stupefy the senses (obsolete, rare).^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To fill someone with a foolish, intense and usually brief passion, especially for another person: The new tutor infatuated half the class.^[13][2]
2. To make someone act foolishly; to deprive of sound judgment.^[13][8][2]
3. (obsolete, 1533–1724) To turn plans or counsels into foolishness; to frustrate.^[2][8][9]

Adjective

1. (archaic) Infatuated.^[13][8][9]

Noun

1. (literary) A person who is infatuated.^[13][8]

Word family

• infatuation
• infatuator
• infatuated

Related words

• fatuity
• fatuous

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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b 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 c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
13. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins