ate

See also: Appendix:Variations of "ate"

Languages (31)

Translingual • English

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Asturian • Basque • Drehu • Dutch • Fijian • Galician • Indonesian • Italian • Japanese • Kapampangan • Laboya • Lindu • Lithuanian • Makasar • Mandinka • Māori • Middle English • Mori Bawah • Nias • Ojibwe • Old English • Portuguese • Sahu • Scots • Spanish • Tagalog • Ternate • Tocharian B • Wauja

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Page categories

Translingual

Etymology

Clipping of English Atemble.

Symbol

ate

1. (international standards) ISO 639-3 language code for Atemble.

See also

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Atemble terms

English

Alternative forms

• et (informal pronunciation spelling)

Etymology 1

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.

Pronunciation

• enPR: āt, ĕt
  • (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /eɪt/
    • (Canada) IPA^(key): [eːt]

    • Audio (US):

      (file)

  • (dialectal, now British) IPA^(key): /ɛt/
• Rhymes: -eɪt, -ɛt
• Homophones: ait, eight, eyot

Verb

ate

1. simple past of eat
2. (colloquial, nonstandard) past participle of eat
   • 1805, Maximilien de Béthune duc de Sully, Memoirs of Maximillian de Bethune, Duke of Sully, Prime Minister of Henry the Great […] ‎^[3], volume IV, page 171:

     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.

   • 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter XVI, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume II, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 192:

     As soon as all had ate, and the elder ones paid, the carriage was ordered; […]

   • 1929, Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch, Nicky-Nan, Reservist‎^[4], page 27:

     “Haven't ate all the eggs, I hope? For I be hungry as a hunter […]

   • 2013 January 11 [1997], David Bell, Gill Valentine, Consuming Geographies: We Are Where We Eat‎^[5], Routledge, →ISBN, page 140:

     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 […]

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Tagalog ate (“elder sister”), from Hokkien 阿姊 (á-ché, “eldest sister”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʔɐ.te/

Noun

ate (plural ates) (Philippines)

1. An elder sister
2. A respectful title or form of address for an older woman.

Anagrams

• eta, æt., eat, Tea, AET, aet, tea, a.e.t., ETA, aet., TEA

Asturian

Verb

ate

1. first-person singular present subjunctive of atar
2. third-person singular present subjunctive of atar

Basque

atea

Etymology

Unknown.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ate/ [a.t̪e]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ate, -e
• Hyphenation: a‧te

Noun

ate inan

1. door, entrance
2. defile, gorge (deep, narrow passage)
3. (sports) goal (structure)
4. exterior, outside part

Declension

Declension of ate (inan V-stem)

	indefinite	singular	plural	proximal plural
absolutive	ate	atea	ateak	ateok
ergative	atek	ateak	ateek	ateok
dative	ateri	ateari	ateei	ateoi
genitive	ateren	atearen	ateen	ateon
comitative	aterekin	atearekin	ateekin	ateokin
causative	aterengatik	atearengatik	ateengatik	ateongatik
benefactive	aterentzat	atearentzat	ateentzat	ateontzat
instrumental	atez	ateaz	ateez	ateotaz
innesive	atetan	atean	ateetan	ateotan
locative	atetako	ateko	ateetako	ateotako
allative	atetara	atera	ateetara	ateotara
terminative	atetaraino	ateraino	ateetaraino	ateotaraino
directive	atetarantz	aterantz	ateetarantz	ateotarantz
destinative	atetarako	aterako	ateetarako	ateotarako
ablative	atetatik	atetik	ateetatik	ateotatik
partitive	aterik	—	—	—
prolative	atetzat	—	—	—

Derived terms

• at
• atera

Further reading

• “ate”, in Euskaltzaindiaren Hiztegia [Dictionary of the Basque Academy] (in Basque), Euskaltzaindia [Royal Academy of the Basque Language]
• “ate”, in Orotariko Euskal Hiztegia [General Basque Dictionary], Euskaltzaindia, 1987–2005

Drehu

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɑt̪e/

Verb

ate

1. to know, be knowledgeable

References

• Leenhardt, M. (1946), Langues et dialectes de l'Austro-Mèlanèsie. Cited in: "ⁿDe’u" in Greenhill, S.J., Blust, R., & Gray, R.D. (2008). The Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database: From Bioinformatics to Lexomics. Evolutionary Bioinformatics, 4:271–283.

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈaːtə/

Verb

ate

1. (dated or formal) singular past subjunctive of eten

Fijian

Etymology

From Proto-Central-Pacific *qate, from Proto-Oceanic *qate, from Proto-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian *qatay, from Proto-Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian *qatay, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *qatay, from Proto-Austronesian *qaCay.

Noun

ate

1. obsolete form of yate

Galician

Verb

ate

1. inflection of atar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Indonesian

Etymology

Borrowed from Hitu [Term?].

Pronunciation

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /ˈate/ [ˈa.t̪e]
• Rhymes: -ate
• Syllabification: a‧te

Noun

ate (plural ate-ate)

1. sago leaves, sewn to make a roof

Further reading

• “ate”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

Italian

Verb

ate

1. (Romanesco) second-person plural present indicative of avere

   Synonym: ete

Japanese

Romanization

ate

1. Rōmaji transcription of あて

Kapampangan

Etymology

From Proto-Philippine [Term?], from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *qatay, from Proto-Austronesian *qaCay.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /əˈte/ [əˈtɛ]
• Hyphenation: a‧te

Noun

ate

1. (anatomy) liver

Laboya

Etymology

From Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *qatay, from Proto-Austronesian *qaCay.

Noun

ate

1. (anatomy) liver
2. (figurative) heart

Derived terms

• ole ate (“friend”)

References

• Rina, A. Dj.; Kabba, John Lado B. (2011), “ate”, in Kamus Bahasa Lamboya, Kabupaten Sumba Bakat [Dictionary of Lamboya Language, West Sumba Regency], Waikabubak: Dinas Kebudayaan dan Pariwisata, Kabupaten Sumba Bakat, page 6
• Blust, Robert; Trussel, Stephen; et al. (2023) “*qaCay”, in the CLDF dataset from The Austronesian Comparative Dictionary (2010–), →DOI

Lindu

Noun

ate

1. (anatomy) liver

Lithuanian

Alternative forms

• atia

Etymology

Etymology unclear. Compare Latvian atā. The word may not be very old, and may ultimately derive from French adieu, via a Slavic intermediary.

Interjection

ate

1. (informal) goodbye, ta-ta

   Synonyms: iki, viso gero

Usage notes

The interjection was originally restricted to childish language, but it is now used more generally in colloquial speech. The VLKK recommends against using it in official communication.

Makasar

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-South Sulawesi *ate, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *qatay, from Proto-Austronesian *qaCay.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈate/, [ˈa.t̪ʰɛ]
• Hyphenation: a‧te

Noun

ate (Lontara spelling ᨕᨈᨙ)

1. (anatomy) liver

Derived terms

compounds

• ate ringang

See also

• ati

Mandinka

Pronoun

ate

1. he, him (personal pronoun)
2. she, her (personal pronoun)
3. it (personal pronoun)

See also

Mandinka personal pronouns

		singular	plural
1st person	short	ń, m̀
	long	ńte	ńtolu, ńtelu
2nd person	short	í	ali
	long	íte	alitolu, alitelu
3rd person	short	a	ì
	long	ate	ìtolu, ìtelu, ìte

Māori

Etymology

From Proto-Polynesian *qate, from Proto-Oceanic *qate (compare with Fijian yate), from Proto-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian *qatay, from Proto-Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian *qatay, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *qatay (compare with Malay hati and Tagalog atay), from Proto-Austronesian *qaCay. Compare with Malay hati for similar connections of this organ with emotions.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈate/ [ˈɐtɛ]

Noun

ate

1. (anatomy) liver (organ of the body)
2. any kind of organ (in compound words)

   atewharowharo: lung

3. heart (seat of emotions)

Derived terms

• ateate

Further reading

• “ate” in John C. Moorfield, Te Aka: Maori–English, English–Maori Dictionary and Index, 3rd edition, Longman/Pearson Education New Zealand, 2011, →ISBN.

Middle English

Noun

ate

1. (Early Middle English) alternative form of ote

Mori Bawah

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʔate/

Noun

ate

1. liver

References

• The Austronesian Languages of Asia and Madagascar (2013, →ISBN, page 684

Nias

Etymology

From Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *qatay, from Proto-Austronesian *qaCay.

Noun

ate (mutated form gate)

1. liver

References

• Sundermann, Heinrich. 1905. Niassisch-deutsches Wörterbuch. Moers: Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen, p. 21.

Ojibwe

Verb

ate (changed conjunct form eteg, reduplicated form ayate, augmented form atemagad)

1. be (in a certain place)

   Gii-kwanabise iwe biskitenaagan imaa adoopowinaakong gaa-ateg.

   The birch bark tray that was sitting on the table tipped over.

Conjugation

Conjugation of ate

Independent	positive	negative
singular (0s)	ate	atesinoon
obviative singular (0's)	ateni	atesinini
plural (0p)	atewan	atesinoon
obviative plural (0'p)	ateniwan	atesininiwan
Conjunct	positive	negative
singular or plural (0)	ateg	atesinog
obviative singular or plural (0')	atenig	atesininig

See also

• abi
• ayaa
• biinde
• dagon

References

• The Ojibwe People's Dictionary https://ojibwe.lib.umn.edu/main-entry/ate-vii

Old English

Alternative forms

• ǣte

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *aitā.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɑː.te/

Noun

āte f

1. oat

Declension

Weak n-stem:

	singular	plural
nominative	āte	ātan
accusative	ātan	ātan
genitive	ātan	ātena
dative	ātan	ātum

Related terms

• ātih

Descendants

• Middle English: ate, ote
  • English: oat
  • Scots: ate, ait, yit

Portuguese

Verb

ate

1. inflection of atar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Sahu

Etymology

Cognate with Ternate hate.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.te/

Noun

ate

1. (Paḏisua, Tala'i) tree

References

• Yurvi Bangowa, Bernard Barulia, Thomas Tjala (2023), Kamus Sahu‎^[6]
• Leontine Visser, Clemens Voorhoeve (1987), Sahu-Indonesian-English Dictionary, Brill

Scots

Noun

ate (plural ates)

1. alternative form of ait (“oat”)

References

• “ate, n.²”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC.

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈate/ [ˈa.t̪e]
• Rhymes: -ate
• Syllabification: a‧te

Etymology 1

Of Nahuatl origin.

Noun

ate m (plural ates)

1. a kind of Mexican jelly candy made by cooking fruit pulp, usually from guava, quince, peach or prickly pear

   Synonym: dulce

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

ate

1. inflection of atar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “ate”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

Tagalog

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Hokkien 阿姊 (á-chí / á-ché, “eldest sister”) as per Chan-Yap (1980) and Manuel (1948). Compare Indonesian ace, Kapampangan atsi, Remontado Agta itti. Doublet of atsi.

Pronunciation

• (Standard Tagalog)
  • IPA^(key): /ˈʔate/ [ˈʔaː.t̪ɛ]
    • Rhymes: -ate
    • Homophone: Ate
  • IPA^(key): /ʔaˈte/ [ʔɐˈt̪ɛ] (uncommon)
    • Rhymes: -e
• Syllabification: a‧te

Noun

ate (Baybayin spelling ᜀᜆᜒ)

1. elder sister; big sister

   Synonyms: (Nueva Ecija) ateng, (Chinese Filipino) atsi

   Nagluto sina ate at nanay ng pananghalian namin.

   Our big sister and mother cooked our lunch.

2. eldest sister
3. term of address for one's elder sister

   Synonyms: (Nueva Ecija) ateng, (Chinese Filipino) atsi

4. (informal) term of address for a female senior (in school, work, etc.)

   Synonyms: (Nueva Ecija) ateng, (Chinese Filipino) atsi

   Tinanong ko si ate sa hayskul, "Ate, ano po ang mga gawain niyo sa hayskul".

   I asked my senior from high school, "Miss, what activities do you do in high school?"

5. (informal) term of address for any young female perceived to be older than the speaker: miss; sis

   Synonym: (Nueva Ecija) ateng

   Bumili ako ng pagkain kay ate.

   I bought food from the miss.

6. (Laguna, Quezon, informal) aunt

Alternative forms

• ati
• te, teh — term of address, colloquial

Coordinate terms

• kuya

Derived terms

• Ate
• ateng
• atihin
• mag-ate

Related terms

• atsi
• ditse
• sanse
• sitse

See also

• ale
• binibini
• kaka
• manang

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ʔaˈteʔ/ [ʔɐˈt̪ɛʔ]
• Rhymes: -eʔ
• Syllabification: a‧te

Noun

atê (Baybayin spelling ᜀᜆᜒ)

1. (childish) dirt

   Synonyms: atse, tsetse, aa

Further reading

• “ate”, in Pambansang Diksiyonaryo | Diksiyonaryo.ph, 2018
• Chan-Yap, Gloria (1980), “Hokkien Chinese borrowings in Tagalog”, in Pacific Linguistics, volume B, number 71 (PDF), Canberra, A.C.T. 2600.: The Australian National University, page 141
• Manuel, E. Arsenio (1948), Chinese elements in the Tagalog language: with some indication of Chinese influence on other Philippine languages and cultures and an excursion into Austronesian linguistics, Manila: Filipiniana Publications, page 14
• 小川尚義 (OGAWA Naoyoshi), editor (1931–1932), “阿姊”, in 臺日大辭典 [Taiwanese-Japanese Dictionary]‎^[7] (overall work in Hokkien and Japanese), Taihoku: Government-General of Taiwan, →OCLC
• Douglas, Carstairs (1873), “ché”, in Chinese-English Dictionary of the Vernacular or Spoken Language of Amoy, With the Principal Variations of the Chang-chew and Chin-chew Dialects. (overall work in Hokkien and English), London: Trübner & Co., page 30; New Edition, With Corrections by the Author., Thomas Barclay, Lîm Iàn-sîn 林燕臣, London: Publishing Office of the Presbyterian Church of England, 1899, page 30
• Douglas, Carstairs (1873), “chí”, in Chinese-English Dictionary of the Vernacular or Spoken Language of Amoy, With the Principal Variations of the Chang-chew and Chin-chew Dialects. (overall work in Hokkien and English), London: Trübner & Co., page 38; New Edition, With Corrections by the Author., Thomas Barclay, Lîm Iàn-sîn 林燕臣, London: Publishing Office of the Presbyterian Church of England, 1899, page 38

Anagrams

• tae

Ternate

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈa.te]

Verb

ate

1. (intransitive) to connect

Conjugation

Conjugation of ate

		singular	plural
			inclusive	exclusive
1st person		toate	foate	miate
2nd person		noate	niate
3rd person	masculine	oate	iate yoate (archaic)
	feminine	moate
	neuter	iate

References

• Rika Hayami-Allen (2001), A descriptive study of the language of Ternate, the northern Moluccas, Indonesia, University of Pittsburgh

Tocharian B

Alternative forms

• at
• attai
• āte

Etymology

Probably from Proto-Tocharian *āté, from Proto-Indo-European *éti (“beyond, over”) or *h₂éti (“away, back, again”).

Adverb

ate

1. away

Further reading

• Adams, Douglas Q. (2013), “ate”, in A Dictionary of Tocharian B: Revised and Greatly Enlarged (Leiden Studies in Indo-European; 10), Amsterdam, New York: Rodopi, →ISBN, page 10

Wauja

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aˈtɛ/

Interjection

ate

1. ow, ouch (expressing pain in response to heat)

   Ate! Inyatapai itsei! ― Ow! [The] fire is hot! [I got singed or burned].

References

• E. Ireland field notes. Need to be checked by native speaker.