relate
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ɹɪˈleɪt/, /ɹiˈleɪt/[1]
Etymology
It is borrowed from Middle French relater (“to refer, report”) and directly borrowed from Latin relātus, the form serving as past participle of referre (“to bring back; to report”) (see refer),[2][3][4] from re- (“back”) and lātus (“carried”).[3][5]
Earliest recorded meaning
To tell or narrate: 1530, in Palsgrave's Lesclarcissement.[2][6]
Semantic evolution
To have reference to is first recorded in Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida (1606),[2] and to stand in some relation from the 1640s (1646 in Barnhart).[3][2] To bring something into relation with something else is from the 1690s, and to establish a relation between things from 1771.[3] The sense of feeling sympathy or connection with someone, as in I can relate to that, is from 1950, originally in the jargon of psychology.[3] Relation is older, from about 1378.[2]
Timeline
- 1530 – to narrate.[2][6]
- 1606 – to have reference to.[2]
- 1646 – to be connected.[2]
- 1950 – to feel sympathy with.[3]
Modern meaning
Verb
- To tell or narrate a story or events.
- To show or make a connection between things.
- To be connected with or have reference to: laws relating to trade.
- To feel sympathy with or understand someone or something.
Word family
- relatable
- relater
- relatability
- correlate
- interrelate
- misrelate
Related words
- relation
- relationship
- relative
- refer
- reference
- translate
- collate
References
- ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
- ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
- ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press