Etymology, Origin And Meaning Of Procrastinate By Etymonline

AdvertisementRemove Ads

Want to remove ads? Log in to see fewer ads, and become a Premium Member to remove all ads.

Origin and history of procrastinate

procrastinate(v.)

"to put off till another day, defer to a future time," 1580s, a back formation from procrastination or else from Latin procrastinatus, past participle of procrastinare "to put off till tomorrow; defer, delay." Intransitive sense of "be dilatory" is by 1630s. Related: Procrastinated; procrastinating. The earlier verb was procrastine (1540s), from French procrastiner.

Do not put off till tomorrow what can be put off till day-after-tomorrow just as well. ["Mark Twain," "Advice to Young People," 1882]

also from 1580s

Entries linking to procrastinate

procrastination(n.)

"a putting off to a future time; dilatoriness," 1540s, from French procrastination (16c.) and directly from Latin procrastinationem (nominative procrastinatio) "a putting off from day to day," noun of action from past-participle stem of procrastinare "put off till tomorrow, defer, delay," from pro "forward" (see pro-) + crastinus "belonging to tomorrow," from cras "tomorrow," a word of unknown origin.

A jocular 19th century term for a procrastinator was tomorrower (1810, Coleridge, who would have known the Latin etymology), hence also tomorrowing "procrastination."

procrastinator(n.)

"one who defers to doing of anything to a future time," c. 1600, agent noun in Latin form from procrastinate (v.).

Advertisement

Want to remove ads? Log in to see fewer ads, and become a Premium Member to remove all ads.

Trends of procrastinate

adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

More to explore

stall[place in a stable for animals] Middle English stalle, from Old English steall "standing place, any fixed place or position, state; place where cattle are kept, stable; fishing ground," from Proto-Germanic *stalli- (source also of Old Norse stallr "pedestal for idols, altar; cribdwellThe apparent sense evolution in Middle English was through "to procrastinate, delay, be tardy in coming" (late 12c.), to...shilly-shally"to vacillate, hesitate, act in an irresolute manner," 1782, from the adverbial expression to stand shilly-shally (1703), earlier shill I, shall I (1700), a fanciful reduplication of shall I? (compare wishy-washy, dilly-dally, etc.). From 1734 as an adjective, by 1755 as a colloqdelayc. 1300, delaien, "to put off, postpone;" late 14c., "to put off or hinder for a time," from Old French delaiier, from de- "away, from" (see de-) + laier "leave, let." This is perhaps a variant of Old French laissier, from Latin laxare "slacken, undo" (see lax). But Watkins has idraglate 14c., draggen, "to draw a grapnel along the bottom of a river, lake, etc., in search of something;" late 15c., "to draw away by force, pull haul," from Old Norse draga, or a dialectal variant of Old English dragan "to draw," both from Proto-Germanic *draganan "to draw, pull,colonel"chief commander of a regiment of troops," 1540s, coronell, from French coronel (16c.), modified by dissimilation from Italian colonnella "commander of the column of soldiers at the head of a regiment," from compagna colonella "little column company," from Latin columna "pillar,"perspicacity"state or character of being perspicacious; keenness of sight, clearness of understanding," 1540s, from French perspicacité (15c.) and directly from Late Latin perspicacitas "sharp-sightedness, discernment," from Latin perspicax "sharp-sighted, having the power of seeing through,honkyalso honkey, derogatory word for "white person," by 1967, African-American vernacular, of unknown origin, perhaps from late 19c. hunky "East-Central European immigrant," which probably is a colloquial shortening of Hungarian (compare hunk (n.2)). Honky in the sense of "factory hafiscal1560s, "pertaining to public revenue," from French fiscal, from Late Latin fiscalis "of or belonging to the state treasury," from Latin fiscus "state treasury," originally "money bag, purse, basket made of twigs (in which money was kept)," which is of unknown origin. The etymolog

Share procrastinate

‘cite’Page URL:https://www.etymonline.com/word/procrastinateCopyHTML Link:<a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/procrastinate">Etymology of procrastinate by etymonline</a>CopyAPA Style:Harper, D. (n.d.). Etymology of procrastinate. Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved December 31, 2025, from https://www.etymonline.com/word/procrastinateCopyChicago Style:Harper Douglas, "Etymology of procrastinate," Online Etymology Dictionary, accessed December 31, 2025, https://www.etymonline.com/word/procrastinate.CopyMLA Style:Harper, Douglas. "Etymology of procrastinate." Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/word/procrastinate. Accessed 31 December, 2025.CopyIEEE Style:D. Harper. "Etymology of procrastinate." Online Etymology Dictionary. https://www.etymonline.com/word/procrastinate (accessed December 31, 2025).CopyRemove AdsAdvertisement

Want to remove ads? Log in to see fewer ads, and become a Premium Member to remove all ads.

TrendingDictionary entries near procrastinate

• proclamation
• proclitic
• proclivity
• Procne
• proconsul
• procrastinate
• procrastination
• procrastinator
• procreant
• procreate
• procreation

AdvertisementClose

Want to remove ads? Log in to see fewer ads, and become a Premium Member to remove all ads.

Want to remove ads? Log in to see fewer ads, and become a Premium Member to remove all ads.

CloseABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ