inveterate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin inveterātus (“of long standing, chronic”),^[2][3][4][5] the past participle of inveterō (“to make old, to grow old”),^[2][4][5][6] formed from in- and vetus (“old”), stem veter-;^[4][5][6][7] the OED instead analyses the verb as the prefix and veterō (“to make old”).^[2] The American Heritage Dictionary calls the prefix causative,^[5] while Etymonline and Barnhart gloss it "in, into".^[3][4] The Latin adjective is also the base of veteran,^[4][7] and de Vaan traces it to Proto-Indo-European *uet-os- (“year”);^[8] Merriam-Webster Unabridged links it with wether.^[9] The English ending is the suffix -ate.^[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a disease, chronic: Barnhart finds inveterat in 1392,^[4] and the Oxford Dictionary of English also gives this as the first sense.^[10] Etymonline has the sense "old" from the late 14th century.^[3] The OED's earliest quotation for the adjective, in another sense, is from 1528, and for the disease sense about 1541.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From long-standing illnesses the word spread to anything fixed by long continuance, a sense the OED records from 1563 and says is now used mostly of bad things.^[2] Of evil feelings and prejudices it is recorded in Shakespeare's Richard II, dated 1597 by the OED and 1593 by Barnhart.^[2][4] A stronger sense, "embittered, full of obstinate hatred", goes back to 1528;^[2] dictionaries now disagree on its status, calling it colloquial or nonstandard (OED),^[2] rare or obsolete (Shorter Oxford),^[11] obsolete (Collins)^[12] or archaic (Merriam-Webster Unabridged).^[9] Of people hardened in a habit, Etymonline dates it from about 1500^[3] and the Shorter Oxford from the late 15th century,^[11] though the OED's first quotation is Fielding's in 1735.^[2] Johnson (1755) gave "old; long established" and "obstinate by long continuance", and quoted Dryden on "an inveterate disease".^[13] The verb meant to establish firmly or root deeply from 1574, and to embitter from 1656;^[2] the Shorter Oxford's records end in the mid 19th century.^[11]

Timeline

• 1392 – of a disease, chronic.^[4] The OED's first quotation is from about 1541.^[2]
• 1528 – full of obstinate hatred, embittered.^[2][14]
• 1563 – firmly established by long continuance.^[2][14]
• 1574 – verb, to establish or root deeply.^[2][14]
• 1597 – of evil feelings and prejudices, in Shakespeare's Richard II.^[2] Barnhart dates the play 1593.^[4]
• 1598 – of long standing, aged.^[2][14]
• 1656 – verb, to embitter.^[2][14]
• 1735 – of people, settled in a habit, hardened.^[2][14]
• 1780 – persistent, lasting.^[2][14]
• 1827 – noun, a hardened offender.^[2][14] The Shorter Oxford dates the noun to the early 18th century.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Firmly and long established; deep-rooted and hard to change: an inveterate distrust of banks.^[5][12][9]
2. Settled in a habit or practice, often a bad one; habitual, hardened: an inveterate nail-biter.^[5][12][2]
3. Of a disease, long-lasting and resisting treatment; chronic.^[9][2][11]
4. (archaic) Full of obstinate prejudice or hatred; hostile.^[9][12][2]
5. (obsolete) Of long standing; old.^[2][13]

Noun

1. A person confirmed in a bad habit; a hardened offender.^[2][11]

Verb

1. (archaic) To establish firmly; to root deeply.^[9][2][11]

Word family

• inveteracy
• inveterately
• inveterateness

Related words

• veteran
• wether
• veterinary

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 o p q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
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 d e f g h Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)