excavate

English

Etymology 1

Known since 1599, from Latin excavātus (“hollowed out”), perfect passive participle of excavō (“hollow out”), from ex (“out”) + cavō (“make a hole”), from cavus (“cave, hole”).

Verb

excavate (third-person singular simple present excavates, present participle excavating, simple past and past participle excavated)

1. (transitive) To make a hole in (something); to hollow.
2. (transitive) To remove part of (something) by scooping or digging it out.
3. (transitive) To uncover (something) by removing its covering.

Related terms

• excavation
• excavator

Translations

to make a hole in (something); to hollow

• Bulgarian: дълбая (bg) (dǎlbaja)
• Dutch: uithollen
• French: excaver (fr)
• Hungarian: kiás (hu), kiváj (hu)

• Quechua: haratay (qu)
• Serbo-Croatian: iskapati (sh), iskopavati (sh)
• Spanish: excavar (es)

to remove part of (something) by scooping or digging it out

• Bulgarian: копая (bg) (kopaja)
• Dutch: uithollen

• Hungarian: elhord (hu), kiemel (hu), kikotor (hu), kimélyít (hu), alámos (hu)
• Spanish: excavar (es)

to uncover (something) by removing its covering

• Bulgarian: разкопавам (bg) (razkopavam)
• Dutch: opdelven (nl), uitgraven (nl)

• Hungarian: felás (hu), feltár (hu)
• Zulu: -mba (zu)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Catalan: esgotar (ca)
• Romanian: excava (ro)
• Spanish: excavar (es)

Etymology 2

Noun

Wikipedia excavate (plural excavates)

1. (zoology) A major grouping of unicellular eukaryotes, of the clade Excavata

References

• “excavate” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary (2001).

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Latin

Verb

excavāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of excavō