Vegetate
/ˈvɛdʒ.ə.teɪt/noun
To grow or live in a dull, inactive way; also, to grow as a plant.
Did you know?Vegetate comes from Latin vegetare, meaning “to enliven” or “make active,” so its modern “spend time doing nothing” sense is a semantic reversal, not the original meaning.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*weǵ-
“to be lively, strong, active”
Latin
Latin
vegetus
“lively, active, vigorous”
Latin
Latin
vegetare
“to enliven, animate, rouse”
Late Latin / Old French
Latin/Old French
vegetare / vegeter
“to grow, thrive; later, to live passively”
16th Century
English
vegetate
“to grow like a plant; to live in a dull or inactive state”
Modern English
English
vegetate
“to live or behave in a passive, unthinking way; also, to grow as a plant”