militate

English

Etymology

First attested in 1598; borrowed from Latin mīlitātus, perfect passive participle from mīlitō, see -ate (verb-forming suffix). Semantically from its cognate, French militer.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɪlɪteɪt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Verb

militate (third-person singular simple present militates, present participle militating, simple past and past participle militated)

1. To give force or effect toward; to influence.

   Synonym: (proscribed) mitigate

   to militate in favor of a particular result

   to militate against the possibility of his election

   • 1944 January and February, W. J. Reynolds, “Locomotive No. 1007 of the Great Northern Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 7:

     The 8-ft. singles were pre-eminently express engines, and were not satisfactory on secondary duties where frequent stops were called for, which militated against their being retained in service.

   • 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 149:

     It has been at least an academic tradition, if no more, that mathematical studies militate against amatory inclinations.

   • 2001, Bernard E. Harcourt, chapter 3, in Illusion of Order:

     There are no missing values for burglary victimization in the data, whereas there are ten missing values for robbery―and as many for physical assault. This fact would militate in favor of using burglary as the independent variable.

   • 2012, James Lambert, “Beyond Hobson-Jobson: A new lexicography for Indian English”, in World Englishes‎^[1], page 308:

     There are a number of theoretical concerns which might seem to militate against the successful creation of a dictionary of Indian English.

2. (obsolete) To serve as a soldier or participate in warfare.
   • 1625, Nathanael Brent, Free Schoole of Warre:

     This..moues many Italian Caualiers to militate in the warres of Holland.

Derived terms

• militation

Translations

to influence

• Bulgarian: преча (bg) (preča), препятствам (bg) (prepjatstvam)
• French: militer (fr)
• Greek: στρατεύομαι (el) (stratévomai), αντιστρατεύομαι (el) (antistratévomai)
• Russian: спосо́бствовать (ru) impf (sposóbstvovatʹ) (in favor), препя́тствовать (ru) impf (prepjátstvovatʹ) (against), быть поме́хой impf (bytʹ poméxoj) (against), меша́ть (ru) impf (mešátʹ) (against)

References

• “militate”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• “militate-against”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.

Anagrams

• limitate

Esperanto

Adverb

militate

1. present adverbial passive participle of militi

Italian

Etymology 1

Verb

militate

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

Etymology 2

Participle

militate f pl

1. feminine plural of militato

Anagrams

• limitate, metilati

Latin

Participle

mīlitāte

1. vocative masculine singular of mīlitātus

Spanish

Verb

militate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of militar combined with te