Activated

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Made active or operational for use or function ; started a biological or chemical process such as enzyme activity or immune response
2. Set into motion or switched on to work ; initiated a process within living organisms or chemical reactions
3. Put into a state of action or readiness ; triggered a biological or chemical mechanism to begin

Etymology: The past tense of "activate" carries a verb-forming suffix that is older than the English word it attaches to. The "-ate" comes from Latin "-atus", a participle ending that English borrowed to make verbs from adjectives and nouns, so "activate" is simply "active" with that ending added. The base word traces back to Latin "activus", meaning "active" or "effective", which passed into Old French as "actif" and reached Middle English as "actyf" before settling into the modern spelling. The Latin root reaches back to "agere", "to drive or do", the same source behind words like "agent" and "action". The deeper link runs through Ancient Greek, where "energētikos" meant something like "effective in action", the sense of a thing that produces results rather than sitting idle. Latin "activus" was a translation of that idea, so the word has always carried the notion of doing something rather than merely being.

Synonyms: energized, stimulated, enabled

Antonyms: deactivated, disabled