procrastinate

English

WOTD – 21 May 2007

Etymology

Either back-formation from procrastination, or from Latin prōcrastinātum, past participle of prōcrastinō (“defer, put off till tomorrow”), from prō (“in favor of”) + crāstinus (“of or belonging to tomorrow”), from crās (“tomorrow”)

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pɹəʊˈkɹæs.tɪ.neɪt/
• (US) enPR: prō-krăs'tə-nāt', IPA^(key): /pɹoʊˈkɹæs.tə.neɪt/, /pɹəˈkɹæs.tə.neɪt/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /pɹəˈkɹæs.tɪ.næɪt/

  • Audio (General Australian):

    (file)

Verb

procrastinate (third-person singular simple present procrastinates, present participle procrastinating, simple past and past participle procrastinated)

1. (intransitive) To delay taking action; to wait until later.

   He procrastinated until the last minute and had to stay up all night to finish.

2. (transitive) To put off; to delay (something).
   • 1816, John Pickering, A vocabulary; or, Collection of words and phrases, page 4:

     Hence It became manifest to the publishers of Webster, that some device must be resorted to, to induce apathy in the publick mind, and thereby procrastinate the inevitable crisis which they foresaw was approaching, the expulsion of his elementary works from our primary schools.

Synonyms

• procrastine (obsolete)
• (intransitive): delay, penelopize, stall
• (transitive): delay, postpone, put off, stall

Antonyms

• precrastinate

Derived terms

• procrastination
• procrastinator

Translations

put off; to delay taking action

• Arabic: سَوَّفَ (ar) (sawwafa)
• Azerbaijani: ertələmək
• Bulgarian: бавя се (bavja se), мая се (maja se)
• Catalan: procrastinar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 耽擱／耽搁 (zh) (dāngē), 拖延 (zh) (tuōyán)

• Czech: odkládat (cs)
• Dutch: uitstellen (nl), voor zich uitschuiven, soggen (nl)
• Finnish: viivytellä (fi), vitkastella (fi), jahkailla (fi), aikailla (fi), kuhnailla (fi)
• French: procrastiner (fr)
• Galician: procrastinar, enredar
• German: aufschieben (de), verzögern (de), vertagen (de), prokrastinieren (de)
• Greek: χρονοτριβώ (el) (chronotrivó), καθυστερώ (el) (kathysteró)
• Hungarian: késlekedik (hu), húzza az időt
• Italian: procrastinare (it)
• Korean: 미루다 (ko) (miruda)
• Latin: procrastino
• Macedonian: одложува (odložuva)
• Malay: melambat-lambatkan,​ melewat-lewatkan,​ menangguh-nangguhkan,​ bertangguh-tangguh,​ menunda-nunda​
• Maori: tonanawe
• Norwegian: somle
• Portuguese: procrastinar (pt)
• Romanian: amâna (ro), tărăgăna (ro), procrastina
• Russian: ме́длить (ru) impf (médlitʹ), тяну́ть (ru) impf (tjanútʹ), откла́дывать (ru) impf (otkládyvatʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian: odugovlačiti (sh)
• Spanish: hacer desidia, procrastinar (es)
• Swedish: prokrastinera (sv), förhala (sv)
• Thai: ผัดวันประกันพรุ่ง (th), ผัด (th) (pàt), ผัดผ่อน (pàt-pɔ̀n)
• Turkish: gecikme (tr)
• Yiddish: אָפּלייגן (opleygn)

put off; delay something

• Azerbaijani: ertələmək
• Bulgarian: отлагам (bg) (otlagam)
• Catalan: procrastinar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 耽擱／耽搁 (zh) (dāngē), 拖延 (zh) (tuōyán)

• Danish: udsætte (da), udskyde, forhale (da), forsinke
• Dutch: uitstellen (nl), soggen (nl)
• Finnish: lykätä (fi), viivyttää (fi), viivästää, viivästyttää, myöhäistää (fi), myöhästyttää (fi)
• German: verschleppen (de), prokrastinieren (de)
• Greek: καθυστερώ (el) (kathysteró), αναβάλλω (el) (anavállo)
• Hungarian: halogat (hu), elodáz (hu), húz-halaszt (hu), elhúz (hu)
• Italian: ritardare (it), posticipare (it), differire (it), rimandare (it), dilazionare (it), temporeggiare (it)
• Macedonian: одолговлекува (odolgovlekuva)
• Malay: menangguhkan, memperlambat​
• Maori: whakatonanawe, whakaroaroa
• Norwegian: utsette (no)
• Portuguese: procrastinar (pt)
• Russian: откла́дывать (ru) impf (otkládyvatʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian: odlagati (sh)
• Spanish: hacer desidia, procrastinar (es), dejar para después
• Swedish: skjuta upp (sv), förhala (sv)
• Turkish: geciktirmek (tr)

See also

• carpe diem cras
• perendinate
• tomorrow never comes

Further reading

• “procrastinate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “procrastinate”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “procrastinate”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Italian

Etymology 1

Verb

procrastinate

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

Etymology 2

Participle

procrastinate f pl

1. feminine plural of procrastinato

Latin

Verb

prōcrāstināte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of prōcrāstinō

Spanish

Verb

procrastinate

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