entry
enervate
/ˈɛnərveɪt/to weaken or drain strength
From Latin e- (out) + Latin nervus (sinew).
from Latin enervatus , past participle of enervare "to weaken" (see enervation ). Literal sense of "to weaken, impair"...
+1 more sourceWord Ancestry
from Latin enervatus , past participle of enervare "to weaken" (see enervation ). Literal sense of "to weaken, impair"...
+1 more sourceRomans imagined strength as something packed into the body's ropes and cables, the nervi. So if you were ēnervātus, you were literally stripped of your sinewy power, as if somebody had cut the laces on your boots and let all the tension drain out. English picked up the word around c. 1600, and for a while it could mean almost physically "to weaken" before settling into the more abstract "sap vitality." That makes it a sneaky cousin of nerve and nervous, but not of energy, which only sounds like it should be related. The whole thing is delightfully brutal: take away the sinew, and what's left is a body with the zip pulled out of it.
The Story
Romans imagined strength as something packed into the body's ropes and cables, the nervi. So if you were ēnervātus, you were literally stripped of your sinewy power, as if somebody had cut the laces on your boots and let all the tension drain out. English picked up the word around c. 1600, and for a while it could mean almost physically "to weaken" before settling into the more abstract "sap vitality." That makes it a sneaky cousin of nerve and nervous, but not of energy, which only sounds like it should be related. The whole thing is delightfully brutal: take away the sinew, and what's left is a body with the zip pulled out of it.
Kin & Kindred
From 'e-'·out, away; remove
Derived Terms
English words from this root
From 'nervus'·sinew, tendon; nerve
Derived Terms
English words from this root
Sources
Etymonline
Free Dictionary
Urban Dictionary
Wiktionary