immolate

English

WOTD – 21 November 2010, 26 March 2012, 26 March 2013, 26 March 2014, 26 March 2015

Etymology

The adjective is first attested in 1534, the verb in 1548; borrowed from Latin immolātus, perfect passive participle of immolō (“to sacrifice”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɪm.əʊ.leɪt/, /ˈɪm.ə.leɪt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɪm.ə.leɪt/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Verb

immolate (third-person singular simple present immolates, present participle immolating, simple past and past participle immolated)

1. To kill as a sacrifice by burning.
   • 1957 December, “Wild Boars Charge French Train”, in Railway Magazine, page 840:

     Evidently some, or all, of the boars immolated themselves, for the train crew are reported to have picked up three dead boars and continued to Sézanne, the next stop, where they gave them to the local hospital cooks.

   • 1978, A.S. Byatt, The Virgin in the Garden:

     A secular style, a new beginning after the iconoclastic excesses under young Edward VI, when angels, Mothers and Children had flared and crackled in the streets, immolated to a logical absolute God who disliked images.

2. To kill, harm, or destroy by fire.
   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 19, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

     She imparted these stories gradually to Miss Crawley; gave her the whole benefit of them; felt it to be her bounden duty as a Christian woman and mother of a family to do so; had not the smallest remorse or compunction for the victim whom her tongue was immolating; nay, very likely thought her act was quite meritorious, and plumed herself upon her resolute manner of performing it.

Derived terms

• immolatory
• self-immolate, self-immolation

Related terms

• immolation

Translations

kill as sacrifice

Arabic: ذَبَحَ (ḏabaḥa) Armenian: զոհաբերել (hy) (zohaberel), զենել (hy) (zenel) Bulgarian: принасям в жертва (prinasjam v žertva) Catalan: immolar (ca), sacrificar (ca) Dutch: offeren (nl) Esperanto: please add this translation if you can Finnish: uhrata (fi) French: immoler (fr), sacrifier (fr) German: opfern (de) Italian: immolare (it), sacrificare (it) Norwegian: Bokmål: ofre (no) Portuguese: sacrificar (pt), imolar (pt) Romanian: imola, sacrifica (ro) Russian: соверша́ть жертвоприноше́ние (soveršátʹ žertvoprinošénije), приноси́ть в жертву (ru) (prinosítʹ v žertvu) Spanish: inmolar (es), sacrificar (es) Swedish: offra (sv) Tibetan: དམར་མཆོད་བྱེད་པ (dmar mchod byed pa) Ukrainian: прино́сити в же́ртву (prynósyty v žértvu) Vietnamese: tự thiêu

destroy

Armenian: ողջակիզել (hy) (oġǰakizel) Catalan: immolar (ca) Dutch: vernietigen (nl) Finnish: tuhota (fi), polttaa (fi) French: immoler (fr) German: zerstören (de) Portuguese: imolar (pt) Russian: сжига́ть (ru) (sžigátʹ) Spanish: inmolar (es)

Adjective

immolate (not comparable)

1. (used as a participle, obsolete) Immolated, sacrificed.

Anagrams

• ammolite

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /im.moˈla.te/
• Rhymes: -ate
• Hyphenation: im‧mo‧là‧te

Etymology 1

Verb

immolate

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

Etymology 2

Participle

immolate f pl

1. feminine plural of immolato

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ɪm.mɔˈɫaː.tɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [im.moˈlaː.te]

Participle

immolāte

1. vocative masculine singular of immolātus