Etymology

dissipate

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Today it means: To drive away, disperse. Full definition →

Middle English dissipaten ← Latin dissipātus
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromdissipātus
  2. Middle English · inherited fromdissipaten
  3. English todaydissipate

The verb is first attested in 1425, in Middle English, the adjective from 1606 to 1765; from Middle English dissipaten, from Latin dissipātus, perfect passive participle of dissipō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), also written dissupō (“to scatter, disperse, demolish, destroy, squander, dissipate”), from dis- (“apart”) + supō (“to throw”). Doublet of dissipe (“to dissipate”), now obsolete.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.