passionate

English

Etymology

From Middle English passionat, from Medieval Latin passionatus, past participle of passionare (“to be affected with passion”); see passion.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpæʃənɪt/, /ˈpæʃənət/

• Audio (US)

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• Hyphenation: pas‧sion‧ate

Adjective

passionate (comparative more passionate, superlative most passionate)

1. Given to strong feeling, sometimes romantic, sexual, or both.

   Mandy is a passionate lover.

2. Fired with intense feeling.
   • 1718, Matthew Prior, Solomon, and other Poems on several Occasions, Preface, in Samuel Johnson (editor), The Works of the English Poets, London: J. Nichols, Volume 31, 1779, p. 93,

     Homer intended to shew us, in his Iliad, that dissentions amongst great men obstruct the execution of the noblest enterprizes […] His Achilles therefore is haughty and passionate, impatient of any restraint by laws, and arrogant of arms.

3. (obsolete) Suffering; sorrowful.
   • c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , line 544:

     She is sad and passionate at your highness’ tent.

   • c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , line 124:

     Poor, forlorn Proteus, passionate Proteus,

Synonyms

• (fired with intense feeling): ardent, blazing, burning, dithyrambic, fervent, fervid, fiery, flaming, glowing, heated, hot-blooded, hotheaded, impassioned, perfervid, red-hot, scorching, torrid

Derived terms

• passionate friendship

Related terms

• passion
• passive
• passivity
• patience
• patient

Translations

Noun

passionate (plural passionates)

1. A passionate individual.

Verb

passionate (third-person singular simple present passionates, present participle passionating, simple past and past participle passionated)

1. (obsolete) To fill with passion, or with another given emotion.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Great pleasure mixt with pittifull regard, / That godly King and Queene did passionate [...].

2. (obsolete) To express with great emotion.
   • c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , line 6:

     Thy niece and I, poor creatures, want our hands / And cannot passionate our tenfold grief / with folded arms.

Further reading

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

Latin

Adjective

passiōnāte

1. vocative masculine singular of passiōnātus

References

• passionate in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)

Middle English

Adjective

passionate

1. Alternative form of passionat