propitiate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin propitiātus, the past participle of propitiō (“to render favourable, win over, appease”),^[2][3][4][5] from propitius (“favourable, gracious, well-disposed”).^[2][6][7] Etymonline and Barnhart take the verb as probably a back-formation from propitiation, in part developed from the adjective propitiate.^[8][9][10] The OED and Klein explain the Latin adjective as pro- with the stem of petō (“to seek, fall upon”),^[2][4] and Weekley compares Ancient Greek προπετής (propetḗs, “inclined”).^[11] Etymonline, following de Vaan, instead gives Latin *propre-tio-, from Proto-Indo-European *propro (“on and on, ever further”), from the root *per- (“forward”), and so relates it to Latin prope (“near”).^[8] Compare French propitier (late 16th century, now rare) and Italian propiziare (1598 in Florio, as propitiare).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The adjective, propitiated or favourably disposed, is recorded first, in 1551, in S. Gardiner.^[2] The verb, to win or regain someone's favour, follows in 1583, in A. Marten's translation of Peter Martyr Vermigli's Common Places.^[2][3] The full Barnhart has the verb from 1645.^[10]

Semantic evolution

English first had the noun propitiation, "atonement, expiation", recorded from before 1425 in the Wycliffite Bible.^[2][8] From 1610 the verb could also be intransitive, to make propitiation or atone, in W. Crashaw's sermons.^[2] A rare use with a request as object, to give it favourable consideration, is known only from 1768.^[2] The adjective lasted until 1868.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined the verb as "to induce to favour; to gain; to conciliate; to make propitious", quoting Waller.^[12] The Shorter Oxford's modern examples range from human sacrifices offered to the sea to an attempt to win over a person.^[13]

Timeline

• 1551 – adjective, propitiated, favourably disposed (obsolete by 1868).^[2]
• 1583 – verb, to make well-disposed; to win favour, appease.^[2][3]
• 1610 – intransitive, to make propitiation; to atone.^[2]
• 1768 – to give favourable consideration to a request (obsolete, rare).^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To appease a person or god, or win their favour; to conciliate: The villagers left grain at the shrine to propitiate the river god.^{[2][3][14][13]}
2. (intransitive) To make propitiation; to atone.^[2]

Word family

• propitiable
• propitiatingly
• propitiative
• propitiator
• unpropitiated
• unpropitiating
• propitiation

Related words

• propitiatory
• propitious

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins