different between adultery vs adulterate

English

Etymology

From the Old French scholarly form adultere (“violation of conjugal faith”) (in Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons, 12c.), from Latin adulterium, from adulter. Replaced the older form avoutrie, from the popular Old French forms avouterie or aoulterie. Compare French adultère (“adultery”). Displaced Old English ?wbry?e. Not related to adult.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??d?lt??i/

Noun

adultery (countable and uncountable, plural adulteries)

1. Sexual intercourse by a married person with someone other than their spouse.
   • 1651, Thomas Hobbes, De Cive

     So also that copulation which in one City is Matrimony, in another will be judged Adultery.

   • 2009 Garner's Modern American Usage page 22

     Under modern statutory law, some courts hold that the unmarried participant isn't guilty of adultery (that only the married participant is)

2. (biblical) Lewdness or unchastity of thought as well as act, as forbidden by the seventh commandment.
3. (biblical) Faithlessness in religion.
4. (obsolete) The fine and penalty formerly imposed for the offence of adultery.
5. (ecclesiastical) The intrusion of a person into a bishopric during the life of the bishop.
6. (political economy) Adulteration; corruption.
7. (obsolete) Injury; degradation; ruin.

Synonyms

• advowtry (obsolete)

Related terms

Translations

Further reading

• adultery in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• adultery in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

English

Etymology

From Latin adulter?tus (“(adjective) adulterated; of mixed descent; (verb) adulterated, corrupted, defiled, polluted; committed adultery with; (figuratively) counterfeited, falsified”) + English -ate (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘having the specified thing’, and verbs with the sense ‘acting in the specified manner’). Adulter?tus is the perfect passive participle of adulter? (“to adulterate, corrupt, defile, pollute; to commit adultery with; (figuratively) to counterfeit, falsify”) + -?tus (suffix forming adjectives indicating the possession of a thing or a quality, from nouns); adulter? is derived from ad- (prefix intensifying the action of verbs) + alter? (“to alter, change”) (from alter (“the other”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h?el- (“beyond; other”) + *-teros (suffix forming contrastive or oppositional adjectives)) + -? (suffix forming first-conjugation verbs).

Pronunciation

• Adjective:
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??d?lt???t/
• • (General American) IPA^(key): /??d?lt?r?t/, [-?d?l-]
• Verb:
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??d?lt??e?t/
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /??d?lt???e?t/, [-?d?l-]
• Hyphenation: adul?ter?ate

Adjective

adulterate (comparative more adulterate, superlative most adulterate) (archaic, literary)

1. Corrupted or made impure by being mixed with something else; adulterated. [common in the 16th and 17th c.]
2. Tending to commit adultery; relating to or being the product of adultery; adulterous. [common in the 16th and 17th c.]

Derived terms

• adulterateness

Translations

Verb

adulterate (third-person singular simple present adulterates, present participle adulterating, simple past and past participle adulterated)

1. (transitive) To corrupt, to debase (someone or something).
2. (transitive) To make less valuable or spoil (something) by adding impurities or other substances.

   Synonyms: (obsolete) adulter, debase
3. (transitive, archaic) To commit adultery with (someone).

   Synonym: (obsolete) adulter

4. (transitive, archaic) To defile (someone) by adultery.
5. (intransitive, also figuratively, archaic) To commit adultery.

Conjugation

Related terms

Translations

References

Further reading

• adulterant on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “adulterate”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Italian

Verb

adulterate

1. second-person plural present indicative of adulterare
2. second-person plural imperative of adulterare
3. feminine plural of adulterato

Latin

Verb

adulter?te

1. second-person plural present active imperative of adulter?