Etymograph

English

meditate

Meditate comes from Latin meditātus ‘meditating, having meditated’, from meditor ‘to think or reflect upon, consider, design,…’, and ultimately from medeor ‘to heal, to cure, to remedy’.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmedeor1‘to heal, to cure, to remedy’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmeditor2‘to think or reflect upon, consider, design, purpose, intend’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmeditātus2‘meditating, having meditated’perfect active participle of meditor
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1761meditate2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin meditor
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English meditate
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1761, John Toland: “[…] yet I can by no means be persuaded…”.

Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmedeorWiktionary, Latin meditor‘to heal, to cure, to remedy’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmeditorWiktionary, English meditate‘to think or reflect upon, consider, design, purpose, intend’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmeditātusWiktionary, English meditate‘meditating, having meditated’perfect active participle of meditor
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1761meditateWiktionary, English meditate. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1761, John Toland: “[…] yet I can by no means be persuaded…”

first attested First attested in 1560 (as stated in Wiktionary’s etymology)

The story

First attested in 1560; borrowed from Latin meditātus, perfect active participle of meditor (‘to think or reflect upon, consider, design, purpose, intend’) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), morphologically as if frequentative of medeor (‘to heal, to cure, to remedy’); in sense and in form near to Ancient Greek μελετάω (meletáō, “to care for, attend to, study, practise, etc.”).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *med- ‘to measure, give advice, heal’

must, model, modern, mode, mood, mud, module, mold, blackmail, modal, modus, modulate, mote, moulder, modifiable, mete, 28 more

through Proto-Italic *medos ‘measure’

commodity, modification, mould, modulation, molding, modulus, modicum, modulo, medicate, 10 more

through Latin medeor ‘to heal, to cure, to remedy’

medical, medicine, medication, remedy, med, medicinal, medic, 7 more

Today it means

verb To contemplate; to keep the mind fixed upon something; to study.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “meditate”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin meditor. 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 / Latin medeor / meditate

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