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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
Kinsey Gidick, USA Today, 26 Mar. 2025
Franz Rogowski plays Tomas, who is married to Ben Whishaw’s Martin but becomes infatuated with a teacher named Agathe (Adèle Exarchopoulos).
—Brian Tallerico, Vulture, 25 Mar. 2025
The two visionaries discussed M. Butterfly, Cronenberg’s 1993 film about a French diplomat (Jeremy Irons) who becomes infatuated with a Chinese opera performer, Song Liling (John Lone).
—Lily Ford, The Hollywood Reporter, 22 Mar. 2025
Like Camille, Olivier also becomes infatuated with the chair, even reaching out to its designer (the fabulous Udo Kier in a black cowboy shirt), who senses something different about the chair now that Camille’s soul is ensconced inside it.
—Damon Wise, Deadline, 24 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for infatuate
Cite this Entry
“Infatuate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/infatuate. Accessed 6 Apr. 2025.
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