Etymograph

English

obligate

Obligate comes from Latin obligātus ‘obliged, made liable, having been bound by…’, from ligō ‘bind, unite’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *leyǵ-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*leyǵ-1‘to bind, tie’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEligō1‘bind, unite’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEobligō2‘bind in obligation’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEobligātus3‘obliged, made liable, having been bound by obligation’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 2023obligate3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin obligo
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Latin obligatus
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English obligate
  4. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2023, Richard Foster, New rail freight terminal leads the way: “That progress has taken over ten years and £20…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*leyǵ-Wiktionary, Latin obligo‘to bind, tie’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEligōWiktionary, Latin obligo‘bind, unite’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEobligōWiktionary, Latin obligatus‘bind in obligation’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEobligātusWiktionary, English obligate‘obliged, made liable, having been bound by obligation’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 2023obligateWiktionary, English obligate. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2023, Richard Foster, New rail freight terminal leads the way: “That progress has taken over ten years and £20…”

first attested First attested in 1533 (as stated in Wiktionary’s etymology)

The story

First attested in 1533; borrowed from Latin obligātus, perfect passive participle of obligō, see -ate (verb-forming suffix).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Latin ligō ‘bind, unite’

league, religious, religion, ally, alloy, liable, liaison, lien, ligament, ligand, religiosity, liaise, ligature, legato, ligation, 13 more

Another origin of obligate

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*leyǵ-‘to bind, tie’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEligō‘bind, unite’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEobligō‘bind in obligation’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEobligātus‘obliged, made liable, having been bound by obligation’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500obligat(e)‘bound, obliged’
  6. Englishtodayobligate

Partly inherited from Middle English obligat(e) (‘bound (by any obligation), obliged’), partly directly borrowed from Latin obligātus, see Etymology 1, -ate (adjective-forming suffix) and -ate (noun-forming suffix) for more.

Today it means

verb To bind, compel, constrain, or oblige by a social, legal, or moral tie.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “obligate”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin obligo, Latin obligatus. 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 *leyǵ- / obligate

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