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felicitate

[fi-lis-i-teyt]

Origin

verb (used with object)

to compliment upon a happy event; congratulate.

Archaic. to make happy.

adjective

Obsolete. made happy.

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Felicitate is one of our favorite verbs.

So is peculate. Does it mean:

to run away hurriedly; flee.

to steal or take dishonestly (money, esp. public funds, or property entrusted to one's care); embezzle.

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Origin:
1595–1605; < Late Latin fēlīcitātus made happy (past participle of fēlīcitāre). See felicity, -ate¹

Related forms

fe·lic·i·ta·tor, noun

un·fe·lic·i·tat·ed, adjective

un·fe·lic·i·tat·ing, adjective

Can be confused: facile, facilitate, facility, felicitate.

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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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World English Dictionary

felicitate (fɪˈlɪsɪˌteɪt)

—vb
	to wish joy to; congratulate

fe'licitator

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

felicitate

1620s, to render happy; 1630s, to reckon happy; from pp. stem of L. felicitare, from felix (see felicity). Related: Felicitated; felicitating.

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Related Words

facilitate

Quote Of The Day

"Good writing is always a breaking of the soil, clearing away prejudices, pulling up of sour weeds of crooked thinking, stripping the turf so as to get at what is fertile beneath. It would be amusing to carry the simile further. Those bulbs that flower in the sand and wither! The gay fiction annual that has to be planted again every year! Those experimental plants from Russia, France, and Greenwich Village that are always getting winter killed—confound 'em!—is it worth while planting them again? The stocky perennial that keeps coming up and coming up—so easy to grow and so ugly. Scarlet sage that gives a touch of fiery sin to the edge of the suburbanite's concrete walk! And then the good flowers—as honest as they are beautiful! The well-ordered gar den! The climbing rose that escapes and is the most beautiful of all!"

-Henry Seidel Canby

felicitate

fe·lic·i·tate