intoxicate

Etymology

It first appears as the adjective inherited from Middle English intoxicat (“smeared or filled with poison”),^[2][3][4] borrowed from Medieval Latin intoxicātus (“poisonous, tainted, corrupt”),^[5][2][4] recorded from the 14th century in British sources.^[5] The verb is borrowed from Medieval Latin intoxicō (“to poison; to taint, corrupt”),^[5][6][7][8] frequent from the 13th century in British sources and also found on the Continent,^[5] taken over through its past participial stem with the suffix -ate.^[5][7][4] Barnhart adds that the English verb is probably in some instances a back-formation from intoxication.^[4] The Latin verb comes from in- (“in”) and toxicō (“to smear with poison”),^[5][6][9][8] from toxicum (“poison”),^[6][9][8] from Ancient Greek τοξικόν (toxikón, “arrow poison”),^[8][10][6] from τόξον (tóxon, “bow”),^[10][6] which has been regarded as a loanword from Scythian.^[6] The OED compares Middle French intosiquer (“to poison”), recorded in 1484.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

As an adjective, smeared or filled with poison: about 1425, in Lydgate's Troy Book, of an arrowhead "with venym ... enoint, Intoxicat at þe square pointe".^[2][5] As a verb, to poison a person: about 1450, in a translation of Boccaccio's De Claris Mulieribus,^[5] and about the same date in Barnhart and Etymonline.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

For about two centuries the word was tied to its Latin sense of poison: the verb "to poison" lasted until 1684, and its figurative use, to corrupt someone morally or spiritually, from before 1529, in Skelton, until 1860.^[5] The adjective had already moved to people carried away by excitement before 1533, and to people drunk by 1554.^[5] Barnhart sees the later figurative verb as growing out of that adjective sense of "stupefied or exhilarated".^[4] Johnson (1755) gives only "to inebriate; to make drunk", though his first quotation, from Bacon, is about drinking "of the world".^[11] The poison sense never quite died: Collins still lists "to poison" for a drug,^[12] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged keeps "poison" as a first sense.^[3] Hoad and the Shorter Oxford mark the poison sense as obsolete.^[13][7] The adjective intoxicate is now rare, and its later use was treated as a shortening of intoxicated.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1425 – adjective, smeared with or full of poison (obsolete by 1632).^[5][2]
• c. 1450 – verb, to poison a person (obsolete by 1684).^[5][4]
• 1480 – adjective, of a person or animal, poisoned (obsolete by 1607).^[5]
• before 1529 – verb, figurative, to corrupt morally or spiritually (obsolete by 1860).^[5]
• before 1533 – adjective, excited or carried away.^[5]
• 1554 – adjective, drunk.^[5]
• before 1566 – verb, of drink or a drug, to deprive of self-control, make drunk.^[5] Etymonline dates this sense by the 1570s, and Barnhart to 1598.^[6][4]
• 1605 – verb, figurative, to excite or exhilarate beyond self-control.^[5] Barnhart dates it to 1591 and Etymonline to the 1590s.^[4][6]
• 1687 – verb, intransitive, of a drink or drug, to cause intoxication.^[5][7]
• 1760 – noun, a drunk person (rare).^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. Of alcohol or a drug, to affect a person so that control of body and mind is reduced; to make drunk, inebriate: Two glasses of cider were enough to intoxicate him.^[12][3][5]
2. To excite or elate so much that self-control is lost: The crowd's applause intoxicated the young singer.^[12][3][5]
3. Intransitive, to cause intoxication.^[5][7]
4. Of a drug, to poison.^[12][3]
5. (obsolete, c. 1450–1684) To poison a person.^[5][7]
6. (obsolete, before 1529–1860) To corrupt morally or spiritually.^[5][7]

Adjective

1. (rare) Drunk, or excited beyond self-control.^[5][7][3]
2. (obsolete, c. 1425–1632) Smeared with or full of poison; poisoned.^[5][7][3]

Word family

• intoxicatingly
• intoxication
• intoxicative
• intoxicator

Related words

• intoxicant
• toxic
• toxicant
• toxin

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b 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. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press