# intimate
## English
### Pronunciation

* Audio (US):(file)
Adjective, noun
* enPR: ĭn'tĭmət, IPA: /ˈɪn.tɪ.mət/
* Audio (US):(file)
Verb
* enPR: ĭn'tĭmāt, IPA: /ˈɪn.tɪ.meɪt/
* Audio (US):(file)

### Etymology 1

Borrowed from Latin intimātus, the perfect passive participle of intimō (“to put or bring into, to impress, to make familiar”) (see -ate (adjective forming suffix)), from intimus (“inmost, innermost, most intimate”), superlative of intus (“within”), from in (“in”); see interior.

#### Adjective

intimate (comparative more intimate, superlative most intimate)
* Closely acquainted; familiar.
    an intimate friend
    He and his sister deeply valued their intimate relationship as they didn't have much else to live for.
* Of or involved in a sexual relationship.
    She enjoyed some intimate time alone with her husband.
** 2011 October 28, Kevin Underhill, “Shape-Shifting Donkey Prostitute Strikes Again”, in Lowering the Bar‎, archived from the original on 16 December 2022:The man, who had been arrested for being intimate with a donkey, admitted the conduct in question but claimed that the donkey had not been a donkey when he met her at a nightclub last Saturday night, but rather a prostitute.
* Personal; private.
    an intimate setting
* Pertaining to details that require great familiarity to know
    The candidate showed an intimate knowledge of the inner workings of politics.
** 2015, Slawomir Pikula, Joanna Bandorowicz-Pikula, Patrick Groves, “NMR of lipids”, in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, volume 44, Cambridge: Royal Society of Chemistry, →ISSN, page 391:Grélard et al.$^{87}$ determined the intimate structure of pseudoviral particles of hepatitis B subvirus using solid-state NMR, light scattering, and cryo-electron microscopy.
* Very finely mixed.
    Black powder consists of an intimate mixture of potassium nitrate, charcoal, and sulfur.

##### Derived terms

* intimate apparel
* intimate area
* intimate partner violence
* intimate parts
* intimate relations

##### Translations
### Etymology 2

From a substantivization of the above adjective, see -ate (noun-forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more.

#### Noun

intimate (plural intimates)
* A very close friend.
    Synonyms: bosom buddy, bosom friend, cater-cousin
    Only a couple of intimates had ever read his writing.
* (in the plural intimates) Women's underwear, sleepwear, or lingerie, especially offered for sale in a store.
    Synonym: intimate apparel
    You'll find bras and panties in the intimates section upstairs.

##### Translations
### Etymology 3

From Latin intimātus, see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more. Cognate with French intimer.

#### Verb

intimate (third-person singular simple present intimates, present participle intimating, simple past and past participle intimated)
* (ambitransitive) To suggest or disclose (something) discreetly.
    He intimated that we should leave before the argument escalated.
** 1878, Henry James, An International Episode‎:One of our friends, nevertheless—the younger one—intimated that he felt a disposition to interrupt a few of these soft familiarities; but his companion observed, pertinently enough, that he had better be careful.
** 1936, Dale Carnegie, “Part 4, Chapter 3. TALK ABOUT YOUR OWN MISTAKES FIRST”, in How to Win Friends and Influence People, page 223: The Kaiser beamed. Von Bulow had praised him. Von Bulow had exalted him and humbled himself. The Kaiser could forgive anything after that. "Haven't I always told you," he exclaimed with enthusiasm, "that we complete one another famously? We should stick together, and we will!" [...] Von Bulow saved himself in time—but, canny diplomat that he was, he nevertheless had made one error: he should have begun by talking about his own shortcomings and Wilhelm's superiority—not by intimating that the Kaiser was a half-wit in need of a guardian.
* (transitive, India) To notify.
    I will intimate you when the details are available.

#### Translations
### Related terms

* intimacy
* intimation

### Further reading

* “intimate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
* William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “intimate”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

### Anagrams

* antitime

## Esperanto
### Adverb

intimate
* present adverbial passive participle of intimi

## Italian
### Etymology 1
#### Verb

intimate
* inflection of intimare:
** second-person plural present indicative
** second-person plural imperative

### Etymology 2
#### Participle

intimate f pl
* feminine plural of intimato

### Anagrams

* Mainetti, imitante

## Latin
### Verb

intimāte
* second-person plural present active imperative of intimō

## Spanish
### Verb

intimate
* second-person singular voseo imperative of intimar combined with te