infatuation

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin īnfatuātiō,^[2][3][4][5] a noun of action from īnfatuō (“to make a fool of”),^[2][6][3] which is formed from in- and fatuus (“foolish”).^[7][8][3] Barnhart and the Shorter Oxford instead take it as formed from English infatuate + -ation, perhaps partly from French infatuation;^[8][9] Etymonline allows all three routes.^[6] The OED notes that the French word is recorded only from about 1700, in Littré.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action of making someone foolish, or the state of being so possessed by folly: 1649, in Bishop J. Hall's Resolutions and Decisions of Divers Practical Cases of Conscience.^[2][8] Etymonline and Dictionary.com date the word to the 1640s.^[6][4]

Semantic evolution

The noun followed its verb, infatuate, which meant "to make foolish" from 1533 and "to inspire with a foolish passion" from 1567 in Barnhart's dating, or from the 1620s in Etymonline's.^[8][6] At first infatuation was mostly the loss of judgment itself: Johnson (1755) defined it as the act of striking with folly, the deprivation of reason, and quoted a sermon by South on God smiting great abilities with great infatuations.^[10][11] The Historical Thesaurus places it among words for amorous love from 1751,^[12] and the OED now describes the word as chiefly used of an intense, often romantic and usually short-lived passion or admiration.^[2] It can also name the person or thing that is the object of such a passion.^[13][14]

Timeline

• 1649 – the action of making foolish, or the state of being infatuated.^[2][8]
• 1751 – a foolish amorous passion.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. An intense, unreasoning and usually short-lived passion or attraction, especially a romantic one: His infatuation with the new neighbour lasted one summer.^[13][2][14]
2. Strong and unreasoning attachment to something, especially something unworthy of it: the town's infatuation with fast cars.^[5][13]
3. The person or thing that is the object of such a passion.^[13][14]
4. The act of infatuating someone, or the state of being infatuated; folly or loss of sound judgment.^[5][10][11]

Word family

• infatuate
• infatuated

Related words

• fatuous
• fatuity

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ 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.
11. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
13. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin