penetrate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin penetrātus, the past participle of penetrō (“to put or get into, enter”),^[2][3][4][5] from penitus (“inner, inmost, to the inmost recesses”),^[5][6][7][8] formed after intrō (“to enter”) beside intus (“within”).^[5][9] Penitus is related to penes (“within, in the power of”),^[6][7][10] penus (“innermost part of a temple; store of food”) and the Penātēs (“household gods”);^{[3][2][4][10]} Etymonline derives them all from penus "food, provisions", from Proto-Indo-European *penos (“food”), comparing Lithuanian penėti (“to feed”).^[3] French has the same verb, French pénétrer, from 1314.^[5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

To get into or through, to pierce, both transitive and intransitive: 1530, in Palsgrave's Lesclarcissement de la langue francoyse.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

Figurative senses came quickly: to see into something with the mind from 1540,^[5] and to touch the heart or feelings from Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona,^[5] Etymonline dating both figurative senses to the 1580s.^[3] In 1589 Puttenham counted penetrate and penetrable among the newly borrowed Latin words that English could not do without, whatever fault was found with inkhorn terms.^[5] The sense "to permeate" dates from 1652.^[5] Modern specialized uses include a product entering a market (1873), a team getting past a defence (1910), spies infiltrating an organization (1922) and the sexual sense (1953).^[5] Johnson (1755) gave the senses "to pierce", "to affect the mind" and "to reach the meaning".^[11]

Timeline

• 1530 – to get into or through, to pierce.^[5][2]
• 1540 – to gain insight into something.^[5]
• 1589 – Puttenham defends penetrate as a necessary Latin borrowing.^[5]
• before 1616 – to affect deeply, in Shakespeare.^[5]
• 1652 – to permeate.^[5]
• 1873 – to enter a market.^[5]
• 1922 – to infiltrate an organization.^[5]
• 1953 – sexual sense.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To pass into or through something, especially by force; to pierce: The nail penetrated the tyre.^[4][12][5]
2. To spread through a substance; to permeate.^[12][5]
3. To see through something: Our headlights could not penetrate the mist.^[12][4]
4. To understand something difficult; to discern its meaning.^[12][5]
5. (intransitive) To be understood: After a moment the joke penetrated.^[12]
6. To affect someone deeply.^[5][11]
7. To enter and win a share of a market.^[5]
8. To infiltrate an organization, especially a hostile one, to gain information.^[5]
9. To insert the penis into the vagina or anus of.^[12][5]

Word family

• penetrator
• interpenetrate
• penetrance
• unpenetrated
• penetration
• penetrable

Related words

• impenetrable
• penetralia
• penates
• penetrant

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ 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.
12. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins