vegetate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin vegetō (“to impart energy to, invigorate, enliven”), from its past participle vegetātus,^[2][3][4] with the English suffix -ate.^[2][5] In post-classical Latin the verb also meant to live or to grow, from the 5th century.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives the Medieval Latin sense "to grow, flourish".^[6] Barnhart and Etymonline think the English verb was probably also in part a back-formation from vegetation, recorded from 1564,^[7][8] and Barnhart that it partly developed from an earlier adjective vegetate, having vegetable life, recorded from 1574 to 1872.^[7][2] The Latin verb is from vegetus (“lively, active, vigorous”), from vegeō (“to be active; to impart vigour, excite”),^[5][7][9] which Barnhart relates to wake.^[7] It is related to vegetable and vegetal.^[8][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a plant or seed, to sprout, germinate, or put out new growth: 1605, in Thomas Tymme's translation of Joseph Du Chesne's Practise of Chymicall and Hermeticall Physicke.^[2][7][6] Etymonline dates it to about 1600, and Dictionary.com to 1595–1605.^[8][3]

Semantic evolution

In the 17th century the verb was used of things other than plants that grow or branch out like them, such as salts forming tree-like crystals (1659),^[2][5] and transitively of stimulating growth or giving life (1620), a sense now rare.^[2][5] Johnson (1755) still defined it as "to grow as plants; to shoot out; to grow without sensation".^[10] The figurative sense, of a person leading a dull, inactive life without intellectual or social activity, is first recorded in 1740, in Colley Cibber's Apology,^[2][7][8] and was extended in 1791 to a country or nation that existed quietly and inactively.^[2] French végéter followed a similar course, meaning to develop or grow in 1375 and to lead a dull, monotonous life in 1718.^[2] The use of land or soil producing vegetation dates from 1799, and of being covered with vegetation (in the past participle) from 1697.^[2][5] In pathology the verb is used of a wart or polyp that develops fleshy outgrowths.^[11]

Timeline

• 1605 – of a plant or seed, to sprout, grow.^[2][7][6]
• 1620 – transitive, to cause to grow, to animate (now rare).^[2]
• 1659 – of a substance, to grow or branch like a plant.^[2]
• 1697 – to cover with vegetation, at first only in the past participle.^[2]
• 1740 – of a person, to lead a dull, inactive life.^[2][7][8]
• 1791 – of a country, to exist quietly and inactively.^[2]
• 1799 – of soil, to produce vegetation.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To lead a dull, passive life with little physical or mental activity: After retiring he spent his evenings vegetating in front of the television.^[11][6][2]
2. To grow in the manner of a plant; to sprout.^[11][6][2]
3. To produce vegetation, or to be covered with it.^[6][2][5]
4. (pathology) Of a wart or polyp, to develop fleshy outgrowths.^[11][2]

Word family

• revegetate

Related words

• vegetable
• vegetation
• vegetative
• vegetal
• wake

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 q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins