Etymology

celibacy

C3E1L1I1B3A1C3Y4

Today it means: Abstaining from marriage; the state of being unmarried. Full definition →

Latin caelibātus
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Latin · derived fromcaelibātus“celibacy, a single life”
  2. English todaycelibacy

From Latin caelibātus (“celibacy, a single life”), from caelebs (“unmarried”). By surface analysis, celib(ate) + -acy.

Words from the same roots

Latincaelibātus all →

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.