Etymograph

English

negate

Negate comes from Latin negātus ‘refused, declined, having been said no to’, from ne ‘not’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *néh₁.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*néh₁1reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*nē1‘not’reconstructed
  3. Archaic Latinc. 700–75 BCEnei1
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEne2‘not’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEnegō3‘to deny, refuse, decline’
  6. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEnegātus3‘refused, declined, having been said no to’perfect passive participle of negō
  7. Englishearliest quotation 2025negate3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin ne
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Latin nego
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English negate
  4. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2025, Network News: Public trials of Coventry's Very Light Rail sy: “The 'slab track' system negates the need to divert…”.

Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*néh₁Wiktionary, Latin nereconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*nēWiktionary, Latin ne‘not’reconstructed
  3. Archaic Latinc. 700–75 BCEneiWiktionary, Latin ne
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEneWiktionary, Latin nego‘not’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEnegōWiktionary, English negate‘to deny, refuse, decline’
  6. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEnegātusWiktionary, English negate‘refused, declined, having been said no to’perfect passive participle of negō
  7. Englishearliest quotation 2025negateWiktionary, English negate. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2025, Network News: Public trials of Coventry's Very Light Rail sy: “The 'slab track' system negates the need to divert…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *h₁eǵ- ‘to say’

deny, adage, prodigious, 3 more

through Proto-Indo-European *né ‘not’

no, na, ne, negotiate, negotiator, 15 more

through Archaic Latin nei

necessity, 5 more

through Latin negō ‘to deny, refuse, decline’

renegade, renege, 7 more

Today it means

verb To deny the existence, evidence, or truth of; to contradict.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “negate”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin ne, Latin nego. 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 *néh₁ / negate

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