Etymograph

English

desecate

Desecate comes from Medieval Latin dēsecō ‘to cut off’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *sek-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sek-1‘to cut, cut off, sever’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sékh₁yeti1reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*sekaō1‘to cut’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsecō1‘to cut, cut off’
  5. Medieval Latinc. 600–1500dēsecō2‘to cut off’
  6. Medieval Latinc. 600–1500dēsecātus2
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1798desecate2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin deseco
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English desecate
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1798, Edmund Burke, The Beauties of the Late Right Hon. Edmund Burke: “So far as it has gone, it probably is…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sek-Wiktionary, Latin deseco‘to cut, cut off, sever’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sékh₁yetiWiktionary, Latin desecoreconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*sekaōWiktionary, Latin deseco‘to cut’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsecōWiktionary, Latin deseco‘to cut, cut off’
  5. Medieval Latinc. 600–1500dēsecōWiktionary, English desecate‘to cut off’
  6. Medieval Latinc. 600–1500dēsecātusWiktionary, English desecate
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1798desecateWiktionary, English desecate. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1798, Edmund Burke, The Beauties of the Late Right Hon. Edmund Burke: “So far as it has gone, it probably is…”

first attested First attested in 1623 (as stated in Wiktionary’s etymology)

The story

First attested in 1623; borrowed from Medieval Latin dēsecātus, a variant of dēsectus, the perfect passive participle of dēsecō (‘to cut off’), see -ate (verb-forming suffix).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *sek- ‘to cut, cut off, sever’

saw, sign, ship, seal, sack, sawyer, scarlet, sax, shingle, scythe, sich, sigil, sedge, sain, desiccation, desiccant, 59 more

through Proto-Italic *sekaō ‘to cut’

sexuality, homosexual, dissection, 17 more

through Latin secō ‘to cut, cut off’

risk, sex, section, sexual, segment, insect, sickle, het, dissect, seg, brassica, 20 more

Today it means

verb To cut, as with a scythe; to mow.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “desecate”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin deseco. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *sek- / desecate

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