violate

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English violaten, borrowed from Latin violātus, the past participle of violō (“to treat with violence, outrage, dishonour”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} with the verb suffix -ate.^[2][7] The Latin verb is usually derived, through an unrecorded adjective, from vīs (“strength, force”),^{[8][9][7][10]} the source of vim;^[10][2] Dictionary.com takes it from violentus (“violent”), and the OED notes a more recent proposal connecting it with the root of invītus (“unwilling”).^[11][8] violer and its Romance relatives, recorded in Old French from about 1100, come from the same Latin verb.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

To break or transgress an oath, a promise or a law: probably before 1425, in a translation of Higden's Polychronicon,^[2][8] early 15th century in Etymonline, which also gives "to defile" and "to desecrate".^[3] The past participle used as an adjective, "violated", is recorded from about 1425, in Lydgate.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The sense "to rape" is also recorded from the 15th century, about 1450.^[2][8][3] The use for profaning a holy place dates from 1490, in Caxton,^[8] and for failing to live up to a moral standard from about 1518.^[8] The sense "to break in upon, disturb", as with peace or privacy, is recorded from about 1518 in the OED;^[8] Barnhart's first example is from 1667, in Milton's Paradise Lost.^[2] Johnson (1755) gave first the sense "to injure, to hurt", then "to infringe", "to injure by irreverence" and "to ravish".^[12] The sense "to treat a person with contempt or disrespect" dates from 1692.^[8] In 20th-century American slang the verb came to mean sending a parolee back to prison for breaking the terms of parole.^[8][13]

Timeline

• c. 1425 – violate, as a past participle.^[8]
• before 1425 – to break an oath or law.^[2]
• c. 1450 – to rape.^[8][2]
• 1490 – to profane a sacred place.^[8]
• c. 1518 – to disturb, intrude on.^[8]
• 1692 – to treat with disrespect.^[8]
• 1969 – (US slang) to return a parolee to prison.^[13]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To break or fail to respect a law, rule, agreement or promise: The company was fined for violating safety regulations.
2. To treat something sacred with disrespect; to desecrate or profane.
3. To disturb or intrude on something, such as someone's peace or privacy.
4. To rape or sexually assault.
5. (US slang) To return a person on parole to prison for breaking its conditions.

Adjective

1. (archaic) Violated.

Word family

• violative
• violator

Related words

• violable
• violation
• inviolate
• violent
• violence
• vim

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ 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
9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
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 Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com