Etymology

mitigate

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Today it means: To reduce, lessen, or decrease and thereby to make less severe or easier to bear. Full definition →

Middle English mitigaten ← Latin mītigātus ← Proto-Indo-European *meh₁y-
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mitigate · verb1

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*meh₁y-“mild, soft”
  2. Latin · derived frommītigātus
  3. Middle English · inherited frommitigaten“to relieve pain, soothe; (swelling) to abate; (hemorrhoids) to relieve; (the mind) to placate, appease; to end, check; to stop, cease”
  4. English todaymitigate

From Middle English mitigaten (“to relieve pain, soothe; (swelling) to abate; (hemorrhoids) to relieve; (the mind) to placate, appease; to end, check; to stop, cease”), from mitigat(e) (“mitigated, alleviated, relived”, also used as the past participle of mitigaten) + -en (verb-forming suffix), borrowed from Latin mītigātus, the perfect passive participle of mītigō (“to make soft, ripe; to tame, pacify”), from mītis (“gentle, mild, ripe”) + -igō (“to do, make”), of uncertain origin, but perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *meh₁y- (“mild, soft”).

mitigate · adjective2

  1. Middle English · inherited frommitigat(e)“mitigated”
  2. English todaymitigate

From Middle English mitigat(e) (“mitigated”, also used as the past participle of mitigaten and of mitigate in Early Modern English), see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.