Where does “motivate” come from?
Motivate comes from Middle French motivé, from Latin motivātus, the past participle of movēre meaning "to move," ultimately from Proto-Indo-European -tós, a suffix forming adjectives from verbal roots.
motivate (English): To provide someone with an incentive to do...
Definitions
- To provide someone with an incentive to do...
Ancestry of “motivate”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | -ate | having the specified thing; characterized by the... |
| 2 | English | -cy | Used to form nouns of state, condition or quality... |
| 3 | Anglo-Norman | -cie | — |
| 4 | Latin | -tia | office, rank |
| 5 | Latin | -ia | Used to form a feminine abstract noun, usually... |
| 6 | Latin | -ius | forming adjectives from nouns; nominative neuter... |
| 7 | Proto-Italic | -jōs | Forms comparative adjectives |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | -yós | Creates adjectives from noun or verb stems |