Etymograph

English

optation

Optation comes from Latin optatio ‘choosing, a choice’, and goes back to optō.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEoptō1‘to choose, select’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEoptatio2‘choosing, a choice’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1650optation2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin optatio
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English optation
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […]: “whilst they murmur against the present disposure of things,…”.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEoptōWiktionary, Latin optatio‘to choose, select’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEoptatioWiktionary, English optation‘choosing, a choice’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1650optationWiktionary, English optation. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […]: “whilst they murmur against the present disposure of things,…”

Linked words

through Latin optō ‘to choose, select’

option, opt, 6 more

Today it means

noun A wish; a desire.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “optation”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin optatio. 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 optō / optation

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