articulate

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English

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Etymology 1

Borrowed from Latin articulātus (“distinct, articulated, jointed”) (see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) for more).

Pronunciation

Adjective

articulate (comparative more articulate, superlative most articulate)

  1. Clear; effective.
  2. Speaking in a clear and effective manner.
    She’s a bright, articulate young woman.
  3. Consisting of segments united by joints.
    jointed articulate animals
    The robot arm was articulate in two directions.
  4. Distinctly marked off.
    an articulate period in history
  5. (obsolete) Expressed in articles or in separate items or particulars.
    • 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis , “II. Century.”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. , London: William Rawley ; rinted by J H for William Lee , →OCLC:
      articulate sounds
  6. (obsolete, of sound) Related to human speech, as distinct from the vocalisation of animals.
    • 1728, James Knapton, John Knapton, Cyclopaedia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, page 146:
      Brutes cannot form articulate Sounds, cannot articulate the Sounds of the Voice, excepting some few Birds, as the Parrot, Pye, &c.
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Etymology 2

From a substantivation of the above adjective through the associated taxon's name, Articulata (see -ate (noun-forming suffix)).

Noun

articulate (plural articulates)

  1. (zoology) An animal of the subkingdom Articulata.
    • 1977, Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History):
      They considered articulates to be pre-adapted for an eleutherozoic existence because they possess muscular arms which are potentially of value in crawling and swimming, as in comatulids.

Etymology 3

From the adjective, see the etymology at -ate (verb-forming suffix).

Pronunciation

Verb

articulate (third-person singular simple present articulates, present participle articulating, simple past and past participle articulated)

  1. (transitive) To make clear or effective.
  2. (transitive, intransitive) To speak clearly; to enunciate.
    I wish he’d articulate his words more clearly.
  3. (transitive) To explain; to put into words; to make something specific.
    I like this painting, but I can’t articulate why.
  4. (transitive) To bend or hinge something at intervals, or to allow or build something so that it can bend.
    an articulated bus
  5. (music, transitive) to attack a note, as by tonguing, slurring, bowing, etc.
    Articulate that passage heavily.
  6. (anatomy, intransitive) to form a joint or connect by joints
    The lower jaw articulates with the skull at the temporomandibular joint.
  7. (obsolete) To treat or make terms.
    • c. 1605–1608, William Shakespeare, Coriolanus, act 1, scene 9, lines 75–77:
      Send us to Rome / The best, with whom we may articulate / For their own good and ours.
Derived terms
Translations

Further reading

Latin

Verb

articulāte

  1. second-person plural present active imperative of articulō

References

  • “articulate”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • articulate in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Spanish

Verb

articulate

  1. second-person singular voseo imperative of articular combined with te
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