Affixes

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.