procrastinate

English

WOTD – 21 May 2007

Etymology

Either back-formation from procrastination, or from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] 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

• IPA^(key): /pɹəʊˈkɹæstɪneɪt/
• enPR: prō-krăs'tə-nāt', IPA^(key): /pɹoʊˈkɹæstəneɪt/, /pɹəˈkɹæstəneɪt/

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (AU):

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Verb

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

• (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 (sawwafa)
• Catalan: procrastinar (ca)
• Chinese:

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

• Czech: odkládat (cs)
• Dutch: uitstellen (nl), voor zich uitschuiven
• Finnish: viivytellä (fi), vitkastella (fi)
• French: procrastiner (fr)
• Galician: procrastinar, enredar
• German: aufschieben (de), verzögern (de), vertagen (de), prokrastinieren (de)
• Greek: χρονοτριβώ (el) (chronotrivó), καθυστερώ (el) (kathysteró)
• Hungarian: elhúz (hu)
• Italian: procrastinare (it)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Latin: procrastino
• Macedonian: одложува (odložuva)
• 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)

put off; delay something

• Chinese:

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

• Danish: udsætte, udskyde, forhale (da), forsinke
• Dutch: uitstellen (nl)
• Finnish: lykätä (fi), viivyttää (fi)
• German: verschleppen (de), prokrastinieren (de)
• Greek: καθυστερώ (el) (kathysteró), αναβάλλω (el) (anavállo)
• Italian: ritardare (it), posticipare, differire (it), rimandare (it), dilazionare (it), temporeggiare
• Macedonian: одолговлекува (odolgovlekuva)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• 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.

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Italian

Verb

procrastinate

1. second-person plural present indicative of procrastinare
2. second-person plural imperative of procrastinare
3. feminine plural of procrastinato

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Latin

Verb

(deprecated template usage) prōcrāstināte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of prōcrāstinō