imprecate

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Latin imprecari (to invoke (good or evil) upon, pray to, call upon), from in (upon) + precari (to pray).

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

imprecate (third-person singular simple present imprecates, present participle imprecating, simple past and past participle imprecated)

  1. (transitive) To call down by prayer, as something hurtful or calamitous.
    • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 119”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
      To sailors, oaths are household words; they will swear in the trance of the calm, and in the teeth of the tempest; they will imprecate curses from the topsail-yard-arms, when most they teeter over to a seething sea; [...]

Related terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Further reading[edit]

Italian[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Verb[edit]

imprecate

  1. inflection of imprecare:
    1. second-person plural present indicative
    2. second-person plural imperative

Etymology 2[edit]

Participle[edit]

imprecate f pl

  1. feminine plural of imprecato

Anagrams[edit]

Latin[edit]

Participle[edit]

imprecāte

  1. vocative masculine singular of imprecātus

Spanish[edit]

Verb[edit]

imprecate

  1. second-person singular voseo imperative of imprecar combined with te