[1655–65; ‹ L torquātus adorned with a necklace, equiv. to torqu(ēs) twisted neck-chain + -ātus -ate1]This word is first recorded in the period 1655–65. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: barbecue, contour, flip-flop, loaded, neutralize-ate is a suffix occurring in loanwords from Latin, its English distribution parallelingthat of Latin. The form originated as a suffix added to a- stem verbs to form adjectives (separate). The resulting form could also be used independently as a noun (advocate) and came to be used as a stem on which a verb could be formed (separate; advocate; agitate). In English the use as a verbal suffix has been extended to stems of non-Latin origin(calibrate; acierate)