inanimate

Inherited from Middle English inanimat(e), from Late Latin inanimātus, from Latin in- + animātus (“animated”), see -ate (adjective-forming suffix). By surface analysis, in- +‎ animate. The noun was derived by substantivization from the adjective, see -ate (noun-forming suffix).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈænɪmət/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: in‧an‧i‧mate

inanimate (comparative more inanimate, superlative most inanimate)

1. Lacking the quality or ability of motion; as an inanimate object.

   Synonyms: immobile, motionless; see also Thesaurus:immobile, Thesaurus:stationary

   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XV, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 172:

     The love of the inanimate is a general feeling. True, it makes no return of affection, neither does it disappoint it; its associations are from our thoughts and emotions.

2. Not being, and never having been alive, especially not like humans and animals.

   Synonyms: non-animate, lifeless, insentient, insensate

   • 1818, Mary Shelley, chapter 5, in Frankenstein‎^[1], archived from the original on 31 October 2011:

     I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body.

3. (grammar) Not animate.

   Antonym: animate

inanimate (plural inanimates)

1. (rare) Something that is not alive.

Borrowed from Latin inanimātus, the perfect passive participle of inanimō (“to animate”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from in- (“in, into”) +‎ animō (“to animate”); by surface analysis, in- +‎ animate.

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈænɪmeɪt/

inanimate (third-person singular simple present inanimates, present participle inanimating, simple past and past participle inanimated)

1. (obsolete) To animate.
   • 1621, John Donne, An Anatomy of the World: The First Anniversary:

     For there's a kind of world remaining still, Though shee which did inanimate and fill

• Mantineia, amanitine, maintaine

inanimate f pl

1. feminine plural of inanimato

• amanitine

inanimāte

1. vocative masculine singular of inanimātus