variegate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin variegātus (“made of various sorts or colours”),^[2][3][4][5] the past participle of variegō (“to make varied or of different colours”).^[6][7][2][3] The OED and Merriam-Webster Unabridged call the verb simply Latin.^[6][7] It is made from Latin varius (“spotted, changing, various”)^[2][4][8][9] and the root of agō (“to do, drive, make”),^{[2][4][8][10][9]} from Proto-Indo-European *ag- (“to drive, draw out, move”).^[2][4] Barnhart supposes a lost intermediate adjective *variegus.^[3] The OED and the Shorter Oxford mention only the first element.^[6][11] Klein compares the second element of castigate.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

To give variety to, to enliven with differences: 1653, in Henry More's Antidote against Atheisme.^[6][3][7] Etymonline dates this to the 1650s,^[2] and Dictionary.com to 1645–55.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word started with the general idea of diversity, and the colour sense came second.^[6][3] That sense is recorded for the verb only before 1728, in Woodward,^[6][3] though the adjective variegated had it earlier: before 1661 in Barnhart^[3] and in the 1660s in Etymonline.^[2] Johnson (1755) gave both meanings together, "to diversify; to stain with different colours", and quoted Woodward on a white spar that "variegates and adds to the beauty of the stone".^[12] A rare sense, to vary by change or alteration, appears before 1690.^[6][11] The noun variegation is dated to the 1640s by Etymonline, earlier than the verb.^[2] The general sense, to enliven with variety, is still recorded beside the colour sense.^[7][10]

Timeline

• 1653 – to give variety to, to diversify.^[6][3][7]
• before 1661 – the adjective variegated, marked with spots or streaks of different colours.^[3]
• before 1690 – to vary by change or alteration (rare).^[6]
• before 1728 – to mark with patches or streaks of different colours.^[6][3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To change the look of something by marking it with patches or streaks of different colours.^[10][6][3]
2. To give variety to; to diversify or enliven.^[10][7][6]
3. (rare) To vary by change or alteration.^[6][11]

Word family

• variegator
• variegation
• variegated

Related words

• vary
• various
• variety
• variation
• agent
• castigate

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.