ingratiate

Etymology

It is apparently borrowed from Italian ingratiare (“to put in grace”), reflexive ingratiarsi (“to insinuate oneself into favour”), both in Florio, now ingraziare,^[2][3][4][5] from the phrase in grazia, Latin in grātiam (“into favour”),^[2][6] from in (“in”) and the accusative of grātia (“favour, grace”), from grātus (“pleasing, thankful”).^[6][3] Watkins reconstructs a suffixed form of Proto-Indo-European *gwere- (“to favor”) behind the Latin noun.^[7] The American Heritage Dictionary and Barnhart hedge the Italian step with "perhaps" and "possibly".^[6][3] The Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English instead form it from the Latin phrase on the pattern of the Italian verb,^[8][9] Hoad adds only -ate to the Latin phrase,^[10] Merriam-Webster takes it from in-, the Latin noun and the same suffix,^[11][12] and Etymonline allows an unrecorded Medieval Latin *ingratiatus.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

To get oneself into favour, reflexively: 1622, in Bacon's Henry VII.^[2][3] Merriam-Webster dates the verb to 1621.^[12][11]

Semantic evolution

The reflexive use recorded first is the one that lasted.^[2][8] Several others grew up beside it in the 17th century: making a thing pleasant or acceptable, from before 1635 to 1748, bringing another person into favour, from 1641 to 1755, and an intransitive use, from 1647 to 1774.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined the word as to put in favour or recommend to kindness, quoting Addison's "to ingratiate themselves with them", and his 1773 edition added that with goes before the person whose favour is sought.^[13] Merriam-Webster Unabridged and the Shorter Oxford still record uses beyond the reflexive.^[11][8] The word's tone now leans to calculation: the American Heritage Dictionary says "by deliberate effort",^[6] the Oxford Dictionary of English says by flattery or trying to please,^[9] and the Historical Thesaurus files it with servile flattery and currying favour.^[14]

Timeline

• 1622 – reflexive, to get oneself into favour.^[2][3] Merriam-Webster gives 1621.^[12][11]
• before 1635 – to make a thing pleasant or acceptable (obsolete by 1748).^[2][14]
• 1641 – to bring a person into favour with another (obsolete by 1755).^[2]
• 1647 – intransitive, to gain favour.^[2][14]

Meanings

Verb

1. To bring oneself into someone's favour by deliberate effort, as by flattery or trying to please, used reflexively and followed by with: The new clerk tried to ingratiate himself with the partners.^{[9][6][12][2]}
2. To gain favour, or try to, without a reflexive pronoun.^[8][2]
3. To commend someone or something to favour; to make acceptable to others.^[11][13] The OED treats these uses as obsolete since the 18th century.^[2]

Word family

• ingratiation
• ingratiatory

Related words

• ingratiating
• grace
• gratitude
• ingrate

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
6. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
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.
14. ^ 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)