masticate

English

WOTD – 4 May 2006

Etymology

From the past participle stem of post-Classical Latin masticō (“I chew”), from Ancient Greek μαστιχάω (mastikháō, “I grind the teeth”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmæstɪkeɪt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Verb

masticate (third-person singular simple present masticates, present participle masticating, simple past and past participle masticated)

1. (transitive) To chew (food).

   The cow stood, quietly masticating its cud.

2. (transitive) To grind or knead something into a pulp.

Quotations

					1832 1892 1896	1927
ME «	15th c.	16th c.	17th c.	18th c.	19th c.	20th c.	21st c.

• 1832 — Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers, ch. 4

  The fat boy rose, opened his eyes, swallowed the huge piece of pie he had been in the act of masticating when he last fell asleep, and slowly obeyed his master’s orders.

• 1892 — Herman Melville, Typee: A Romance of the South Seas, ch. 12

  'By tasting it, to be sure,' said I, masticating a morsel that Kory-Kory had just put in my mouth.

• 1896 — H. G. Wells, The Island of Dr. Moreau, ch. 8

  He resumed his meal. "I had no idea of it," he said, and masticated.

• 1927-1929— Mahatma Gandhi, An Autobiography or The Story of my Experiments with Truth, translated 1940 by Mahadev Desai

  The vegetables were not to be cooked but merely grated fine, if I could not masticate them.

• 2001 - Nadine Gordimer, The Pickup

  The friends watch the two make their way between other habitué's masticating, drinking, crouched in a scrum of conversation...

Translations

chew — see chew

to knead

• Bavarian: dabaazn
• Finnish: jauhaa (fi), soseuttaa (fi)
• Icelandic: (crush into a mush) kremja í mauk, hnoða í mauk

• Maori: kōrapu
• Russian: месить (ru) (mesitʹ)

See also

• mastic
• masticable
• mastication
• masticator
• masticatory

Anagrams

• catamites

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Interlingua

Participle

masticate

1. past participle of masticar

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Italian

Verb

masticate

1. second-person plural present of masticare

Participle

masticate

1. feminine plural of the past participle of masticare

Anagrams

• mesticata

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Latin

Verb

masticāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of masticō