commit
pronunciation
How to pronounce commit in British English:
UK [kəˈmɪt]
How to pronounce commit in American English:
US [kəˈmɪt]
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- Verb:
- perform an act, usually with a negative connotation
- give entirely to a specific person, activity, or cause
- cause to be admitted; of persons to an institution
- confer a trust upon
- make an investment
Word Origin
- commit
- commit: [14] Etymologically, commit simply means ‘put together’. It comes from Latin committere, a compound verb formed from the prefix com- ‘together’ and the verb mittere ‘put, send’ (whence English missile and mission). It originally meant literally ‘join, connect’, but then branched out along the lines of ‘put for safety, entrust’ (the force of com- here being more intensive than collective) and ‘perpetrate’ (exactly how this sense evolved is not clear).The whole range of meanings followed the Latin verb into English, although ‘put together’ was never more than an archaism, and died out in the 17th century. Of derivatives based on the Latin verb’s past participial stem commiss-, commission entered English in the 14th century and commissionaire (via French) in the 18th century. Medieval Latin commissārius produced English commissary [14] and, via French, Russian commissar, borrowed into English in the 20th century.=> commissar, committee, missile, mission
- commit (v.)
- late 14c., "to give in charge, entrust," from Latin committere "to unite, connect, combine; to bring together," from com- "together" (see com-) + mittere "to put, send" (see mission). Evolution into modern range of meanings is not entirely clear. Sense of "perpetrating" was ancient in Latin; in English from mid-15c. The intransitive use (in place of commit oneself) first recorded 1982, probably influenced by existentialism use (1948) of commitment to translate Sartre's engagement "emotional and moral engagement."
Example
- 1. In the next I would try to commit more errors .
- 2. We should have insisted banks commit to more lending .
- 3. Few firms will commit their money to a country where the business climate is highly unpredictable .
- 4. Yet it is our nature to seek to know what an experience will be like before we commit ourselves to it .
- 5. He thinks that teenage gang members who commit murder should be executed , that fourteen-year-old thieves should be tried as adults .