hate

Reading level: medium

Estimated CEFR level: B1 — Intermediate

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun the emotion of intense dislike; a feeling of dislike so strong that it demands action
  2. verb dislike intensely; feel antipathy or aversion towards

Etymology

From Middle English hate (noun), probably from Old English hatian (“to hate”, verb) and/or Old Norse hatr (“hate”, noun). Merged with Middle English hete, hæte, heate (“hate”), from Old English hete, from Proto-Germanic *hataz (“hatred, hate”), from Proto-Indo-European *keh₂d- (“strong emotion”). Cognate with Dutch haat (“hatred”), German Hass, Haß (“hate, hatred”), Luxembourgish Haass (“hate, hatred”), Vilamovian hās (“hate, hatred”), Yiddish האַס (has, “hatred”), Danish had (“hate, hatred”), Faroese and Icelandic hatur (“hatred, spite, aversion”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish hat (“hate, hatred”), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐍄𐌹𐍃 (hatis, “hate, wrath”). The verb is from Middle English haten, from Old English hatian (“to hate, treat as an enemy”), from Proto-West Germanic *hatēn, from Proto-Germanic *hatāną (“to hate”), from Proto-Germanic *hataz, from the same root as above.

In classic literature

Synonyms

hatred

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