date
/deɪt/ noun, verb, proper noun
- noun The fruit of the date palm, Phoenix dactylifera, somewhat in the shape of an olive, containing a soft, sweet pulp and enclosing a hard kernel. “We made a nice cake from dates.”
- noun The date palm. “There were a few dates planted around the house.”
- noun (Australia, New Zealand) The anus.
- noun The addition to a writing, inscription, coin, etc., which specifies the time (especially the day, month, and year) when the writing or inscription was given, executed, or made. “the date of a letter, of a will, of a deed, of a coin, etc.”
- noun A specific day in time at which a transaction or event takes place, or is appointed to take place; a given point of time. “the date for pleading”
- noun A point in time. “You may need that at a later date.”
- noun (rare) An assigned end; a conclusion.
- noun (obsolete) A given or assigned length of life; duration.
- noun A pre-arranged meeting. “I arranged a date with my Australian business partners.”
- noun One's companion for social activities or occasions, especially a romantic partner. “I brought Melinda to the wedding as my date.”
- noun A romantic meeting or outing with a lover or potential lover, or the person so met. “We really hit it off on the first date, so we decided to meet the week after.”
- verb (transitive) To note the time or place of writing or executing; to express in an instrument the time of its execution. “to date a letter, a bond, a deed, or a charter”
- verb (transitive) To note or fix the time of (an event); to give the date of.
- verb (transitive) To determine the age of something. “to date the building of the pyramids”
- verb (transitive) To take (someone) on a date, or a series of dates.
- verb (transitive, by extension) To have a steady relationship with; to be romantically involved with.
- verb (reciprocal, by extension) To have a steady relationship with each other; to be romantically involved with each other. “They met a couple of years ago, but have been dating for about five months.”
- verb (ambitransitive) To make or become old, especially in such a way as to fall out of fashion, become less appealing or attractive, etc. “This show hasn't dated well.”
- verb (intransitive, with from) To have beginning; to begin; to be dated or reckoned.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
go out see age elden obsolesce go out [with] go with go together hang together have a thing step out day of the month escort appointment engagement particular date date stamp go steady
Etymology
From Middle English date, from Old French date, datil, datille, from Latin dactylus (likely via Old Provençal datil), from Ancient Greek δάκτυλος (dáktulos, “finger”) (from the resemblance of the date to a human finger), probably a folk-etymological alteration of a word from a Semitic source such as Arabic دَقَل (daqal, “variety of date palm”) or Hebrew דֶּקֶל (deqel, “date palm”). Doublet of dactyl and dactylus. Displaced native Old English fingeræppel, literally "finger-apple".
From Middle English date, from Old French date, from Late Latin data, from Latin datus (“given”), past participle of dare (“to give”); from Proto-Indo-European *deh₃- (“to give”). Doublet of data.
* Borrowed from Marathi दाते (dāte), from Sanskrit दाता (dātā), nominative singular of दातृ (dātṛ, “giver, donor”).
* Borrowed from Japanese 伊達 (Date, “a city in Hokkaido Prefecture”), a habitational surname.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The fruit of the date palm; also, the date palm itself.
- noun That addition to a writing, inscription, coin, etc., which specifies the time (as day, month, and year) when the writing or inscription was given, or executed, or made; as, the date of a letter, of a will, of a deed, of a coin. etc. And bonds without a date, they say, are void. Dryden.
- noun The point of time at which a transaction or event takes place, or is appointed to take place; a given point of time; epoch; as, the date of a battle.
- verb To note the time of writing or executing; to express in an instrument the time of its execution; as, to date a letter, a bond, a deed, or a charter.
Etymology [F. datte, L. dactylus, fr. Gr. , prob. not the same word as finger, but of Semitic origin.]
Etymology [F. date, LL. data, fr. L. datus given, p.p. of dare to give; akin to Gr. , OSlaw. dati, Skr. da. Cf. Datum, Dose, Dato, Die.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “date”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details