Etymologically
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violate

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈvaɪəˌleɪt/[1]

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

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