Word origin
[1875–80; ‹ LL
vallātus (ptp. of
vallāre to surround, border with a wall, rampart), equiv. to
vall(
um) rampart,
wall +
-ātus -ate1]This word is first recorded in the period 1875–80. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: authoritarian, graph, hat trick, massage, musical chairs-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)