tolerate

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈtɒl.ə.ɹeɪt/ (UK); /ˈtɑ.lə.ɹeɪt/, /ˈtɒl.ə.ɹeɪt/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin tolerātus, the past participle of tolerō (“to bear, endure”),^[2][3][4][5] related to tollō (“to lift up, raise”),^[6][7][8] from Proto-Indo-European *telh₂- (“to lift, bear”).^[3][5] The OED treats it as borrowed from French tolérer with the English suffix -ate,^[9] and Barnhart as a back-formation from toleration or a formation on the model of tolerable and tolerance.^[6] Cognates include Ancient Greek τλῆναι (tlênai, “to endure”) and Old English þolian (“to endure”).^[7][10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

To endure or bear pain or hardship: 1531, in Sir Thomas Elyot's Boke Named the Governour.^[9][6]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, to endure hardship, faded by 1616.^[9][12] From 1533 the word was used of authorities that allowed something to exist without interfering,^[9][6] and of not interfering with others' opinions or practices.^[2] From 1646 it meant to put up with something one dislikes, or to accept differing opinions without condemning them.^[9][2] Medicine took up the old sense of enduring again in 1895, of a body coping with a drug or poison.^[9][2]

Timeline

• 1517–18 – toleration, permission granted by authority.^[6]
• 1531 – to endure pain or hardship.^[9][6]
• 1533 – to allow without interference.^[9][6]
• 1646 – to put up with; to accept.^[9][12]
• 1895 – to endure a drug without harm.^[9][2]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To allow something one dislikes or disagrees with to exist or happen without interfering.
2. To put up with or endure something or someone.
3. (medicine) To be able to take a drug or treatment without bad effects.

Word family

• tolerative
• tolerator

Related words

• tolerable
• tolerance
• tolerant
• toleration
• extol

Usage notes

In East Anglian dialect tolerate meant, curiously, to domineer or tyrannize.^[13]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
6. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
13. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)