incarcerate

English

Etymology

From Medieval Latin incarcerātus, past participle of incarcerō (“to imprison”), from Latin in- (“in”) + carcer (“a prison”), meaning "put behind lines (bars)" – Latin root is of a lattice or grid. Related to cancel (“cross out with lines”) and chancel (“area behind a lattice”).

See also carcerate and cancer.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈkɑː.səˌɹeɪt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈkɑɹ.səˌɹeɪt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Verb

incarcerate (third-person singular simple present incarcerates, present participle incarcerating, simple past and past participle incarcerated)

1. (chiefly US) To lock away; to imprison, especially for breaking the law.
   • 2013 September 23, Masha Gessen, “Life in a Russian Prison”, in New York Times, retrieved 24 September 2013:

     Tolokonnikova has also been an effective public speaker even while incarcerated, but she has spoken out on politics and freedom in general rather than prisoners’ rights.

2. To confine; to shut up or enclose; to hem in.

Usage notes

As a Latinate term, somewhat formal, compared to imprison. However, the term is, even in casual settings, used chiefly and frequently in the United States.

Synonyms

• imprison
• jail

Derived terms

• incarceration

Related terms

• carceral
• carcerate
• decarcerate

Translations

Adjective

incarcerate (not comparable)

1. (archaic) Incarcerated.
   • 1642, H[enry] M[ore], “ΨΥΧΑΘΑΝΑΣΙΑ Platonica: Or A Platonicall Poem of the Immortality of Souls, Especially Mans Soul”, in ΨΥΧΩΔΙΑ Platonica: Or A Platonicall Song of the Soul, , Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Roger Daniel, printer to the Universitie, →OCLC, book 1, canto 2, stanza 20, page 13:

     Nor is that radiant force in humane kind / Extinguiſht quite, he that did them create / Can thoſe dull ruſty chains of ſleep unbind, / And rear the ſoul unto her ſristin ſtate: / He can them ſo inlarge and elevate / And ſpreaden out, that they can compaſſe all, / When they no longer be incarcerate / In this dark dungeon, this foul fleſhy wall, / Nor be no longer wedg’d in things corporeall: […]

   • 1698, John Nisbet of Dirleton, Some Doubts & Questions, in the Law; Especially of Scotland. As Also, Some Decisions of the Lords of Council and Session: , Edinburgh: George Mosman, , page 146:

     […] Mr. Vanſe, Keeper of the Tolbooth, did give in a Bill, repreſenting, That there being ſo great a number of Priſoners, upon account of Conventicles, and for Criminal Cauſes, and the ſaid Captain being incarcerate, not for a Crime, but for not finding Caution, he was in bona fide not to look upon him as a Perſon that would eſcape: […]

   • 1707, , An Informatory Vindication of a Poor, Wasted, Misrepresented, Remnant of the Suffering, Anti-Popish, Anti-Prelatick, Anti-Erastian, Anti-Sectarian, True Presbyterian Church of Christ in Scotland: , page 14:

     Being Incarcerat he put forth a Blaſphemous Paper, not only condemning all the work of Reformation, but alſo the Engliſh Bible in the form as it is now extant; […]

   • 1732, John Louthian, The Form of Process before the Court of Justiciary in Scotland; Containing the Constitution of the Sovereign Criminal Court, and the Way and Manner of Their Procedure: , Edinburgh: Robert Fleming and Company, for William Hamilton, , pages 71 and 73:

     THat where I being incarcerate within the ſaid Tolbooth, by Warrand of the Lord Juſtice Clerk, for the Crime of Murder alledged committed by me, […] humbly ſhewing, That where, he being incarcerate within the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, by Warrant of the Lord Juſtice Clerk, for the Crime of Muther committed by him, […]

   • 1833, Joseph P. Bartrum, The Psalms, Newly Paraphrased for the Service of the Sanctuary. , Boston, Mass.: Russell, Odiorne, and Company, page 76:

     While incarcerate below, / Prayer with every breath shall flow; / Praise, expiring on my tongue, / Live anew in holier song, / Where my soul, its trial past, / Perfect joy shall reap at last!

Further reading

• “incarcerate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “incarcerate”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Italian

Verb

incarcerate

1. inflection of incarcerare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative
   3. feminine plural past participle

Anagrams

• accentrerai