Incarcerate
/ɪnˈkɑːr.sə.reɪt/noun
To imprison or confine someone; to place in jail.
Did you know?The word comes from Latin roots for ‘in’ + ‘cage,’ and its ancestor *carcer* also gave English the word ‘carceral,’ the academic term for prison systems and punishment.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*kers-
“to run”
Latin
Latin
carrus
“wagon, cart”
Latin
Latin
carcer
“enclosure, prison, barrier”
Late Latin
Latin
incarcerare
“to imprison, confine in a prison”
Old French
Old French
incarcérer
“to imprison”
Modern English
English
incarcerate
“to imprison or confine”