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What is the origin of infatuated?
When we speak of someone being infatuated it very often is in relationship to that person having seemingly taken leave of his or her senses, especially in a romantic context (“he was so infatuated that he could not remember what day of the week it was”). This is fitting, as the word shares an origin with the word fatuous, which means complacently or inanely foolish. Both words come from the Latin fatuus (“foolish”), although fatuous is not often used in the romantic contexts in which we find infatuate. When used with a preposition infatuated is typically followed by with.
Examples of infatuate in a Sentence
Yvonne Villarreal, Los Angeles Times, 2 Apr. 2024
When his work, along with that of other Ukiyo-e artists of that period, was discovered by French artists, they were infatuated.
—Geraldine Fabrikant, New York Times, 19 Mar. 2024
Since entering adulthood, I’ve been entirely infatuated with athleisure.
—Merrell Readman, Travel + Leisure, 18 Feb. 2024
But nearly 75 years before the connection between pop music icon Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce became a public obsession, Americans were similarly infatuated with the growing romance of Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio.
—Frederic J. Frommer, Kansas City Star, 18 Feb. 2024
Ironically, in the time since his last album, Four Tet has arguably become a household name, as young audiences become infatuated with nostalgia for dance music’s heyday and as acts like Fred Again and Overmono have entered the forefront of pop culture.
—Jeff Ihaza, Rolling Stone, 19 Mar. 2024
But not all hope is lost for those infatuated with the notion of a terror of the river.
—Max Bennett, Discover Magazine, 16 Jan. 2024
An infamous case of erotomania includes a man who became infatuated with actress Jodie Foster after repeatedly watching the film Taxi Driver and began to stalk her.
—Mark Travers, Forbes, 27 Feb. 2024
Expatriate Russian writer Vladimir Nabokov, cited in the notes in connection with his literary friendships with Wells and Wilson, was never infatuated with communism.
—Elizabeth Powers, National Review, 21 Dec. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'infatuate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Infatuate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/infatuate. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.
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