-ate3 Also -atable.
Forming verbs.
[Latin words in -atus, -ata, -atum, or verbs in -are.]
Some verbs were formed from adjectives with the same ending (see the previous entry), for example separate and associate. Later, many others were created from Latin verbs: captivate, create, demonstrate, fascinate, hyphenate, litigate, originate, sublimate, substantiate, vaccinate.
Others have been formed on words from a variety of sources: assassinate, cerebrate (to think), chlorinate, curate (to carry out the functions of a museum or art gallery curator), eventuate, methylate, speciate (to form a new and distinct species in the course of evolution).
The suffix is highly productive in modern English. There is a slight tendency to prefer verbs in -ate to ones formed on the same stems using other endings, as for instance administrate is gaining in popularity compared with administer.
Verbs in -ate usually form adjectives in -atable: debatable, locate, rotatable, but many of more than two syllables lose the -ate ending: demonstrable, educable, penetrable, tolerable, venerable. See also -able.
Most of these verbs form nouns in -ation.
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