ate en · VERB · etymology 1
Pronunciation
- /eɪt/ (General-American, Received-Pronunciation)
- (US) audio
- /ɛt/ dialectal, now chiefly dated UK and Commonwealth, sometimes Ireland, occasionally Southern US
- [eːt] (Canada)
- ĕt
- āt
Etymology
Probably a remodelling of earlier eat by analogy with other strong verbs such as break:†brake, give:gave, speak:†spake; compare the same process in rare Middle English at (“ate”) besides more usual et. However, the pronunciation /ɛt/ likely continues Middle English et, from Old English ǣt, from Proto-West Germanic *āt, from Proto-Germanic *ēt, with shortening as in e.g. thread.
Meanings
-
(form-of, past) simple past of eat
form of eat
-
(colloquial, form-of, nonstandard, participle, past) past participle of eat
form of eat
I have a very good appetite, have ate some excellent melons, and they have served me up some quails, the fattest and tenderest I have ever ate.
1805, Maximilien de Béthune duc de Sully, Memoirs of Maximillian de Bethune, Duke of Sully, Prime Minister of Henry the Great […] , volume IV, page 171:The emotionless […] led the way into a large dining-room furnished with the severe simplicity of an apartment which is meant to be ate in, but never lived in; and at top of a table which would have accommodated eighteen persons Robert beheld Mr. Harcourt Talboys.
1862, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Lady Audley's Secret:“Haven't ate all the eggs, I hope? For I be hungry as a hunter[…]
1929, Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch, Nicky-Nan, Reservist, page 27:So I'd have ate when me Dad had ate, sort of thing, I think, you know when he come home from work, I'd have waited for him, I wouldn't have said I wanted mine at four o'clock[…]
2013 January 11 [1997], David Bell, Gill Valentine, Consuming Geographies: We Are Where We Eat, Routledge, →ISBN, page 140:As soon as all had ate, and the elder ones paid, the carriage was ordered; […]
1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter XVI, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume II, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 192:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| et | Polite=Infm | alternative, pronunciation-spelling | lexicographic |