Etymology

demotivate

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Today it means: To decrease the motivation of a person or a group. Full definition →

English motivate ← Middle English motif ← Late Latin mōtīvum
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*de
  2. Proto-Indo-European*déh₁
  3. Proto-Italic*dē
  4. Latindē
  5. Latindē-
  6. Englishde-
  7. Anglo-Normanmotif
  8. Middle Frenchmotif
  9. Proto-Indo-European*m(y)ewh₁-
  10. Proto-Indo-European*m(y)owh₁éyeti
  11. Proto-Italic*moweō
  12. Latinmoveō
  13. Latinmōtus
  14. Late Latinmōtīvum
  15. Middle Englishmotif
  16. Englishmotive
  17. Englishmotivate
  18. English todaydemotivate

From de- + motivate.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.