Etymograph

English

devastate

Devastate comes from Latin dēvastātus ‘devastated’, from vāstus ‘Empty, unoccupied, i.e. waste, desert’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁weh₂-1‘empty, wasted’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(h₁)weh₂-stos1reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*wāstos1reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvāstus2‘Empty, unoccupied, i.e. waste, desert’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvāstō2
  6. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēvastō3‘to lay waste, devastate’
  7. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēvastātus3‘devastated’perfect passive participle of dēvastō
  8. Englishearliest quotation 2022devastate3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin vastus
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Latin devasto
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English devastate
  4. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2022, Bruce Healey, Wartime tunnel crash: a miraculous escape: “Halifax in Canada was devastated by a ship exploding…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁weh₂-Wiktionary, Latin vastus‘empty, wasted’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(h₁)weh₂-stosWiktionary, Latin vastusreconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*wāstosWiktionary, Latin vastusreconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvāstusWiktionary, Latin devasto‘Empty, unoccupied, i.e. waste, desert’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvāstōWiktionary, Latin devasto
  6. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēvastōWiktionary, English devastate‘to lay waste, devastate’
  7. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēvastātusWiktionary, English devastate‘devastated’perfect passive participle of dēvastō
  8. Englishearliest quotation 2022devastateWiktionary, English devastate. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2022, Bruce Healey, Wartime tunnel crash: a miraculous escape: “Halifax in Canada was devastated by a ship exploding…”

first attested First attested in 1638 (as stated in Wiktionary’s etymology)

The story

First attested in 1638.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- ‘empty, wasted’

want, various, variety, waste, vacation, vary, void, variable, vacant, vanity, vain, vanish, waning, evacuate, wane, vacate, vacuous, varicella, evanescent, 25 more

through Latin vāstus ‘Empty, unoccupied, i.e. waste, desert’

vast, 3 more

Today it means

verb To ruin many or all things over a large area, such as most or all buildings of a city, or cities of a region, or trees of a forest.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “devastate”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin vastus, Latin devasto. 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 *h₁weh₂- / devastate

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