How did *vegetate* take this meaning despite its etymology?

Question

vegetate

intransitive verb
1 : to lead a passive existence without exertion of body or mind
2 a : to grow in the manner of a plant; also : to grow exuberantly or with proliferation of fleshy or warty outgrowths
  b : to produce vegetation

transitive verb
: to establish vegetation in or on

origin:
borrowed from Late Latin vegetātus, past participle of vegetāre “to live, grow,” going back to Latin, “to impart energy to, invigorate,” verbal derivative of vegetus “vigorous, active, lively,” probably, if from *vegitus, verbal adjective of vegēre “to give vigor to, enliven” — more at ¹wake.

_{Merriam-Webster}

Basic backformation accounts for the transitive sense, and the intransitive senses 2 a and b definitely align with the word’s etymology. However, the origin cited in Merriam-Webster and its connotations—specifically “‘vigorous, active, lively’”—seems to me the antithesis of the intransitive sense 1.

Could someone shed some light on this discrepancy?

Answer 1

The meaning of vegatate as to lead a passive existence is not in spite, but rather due to its etymology. You only need observe that the liveliness of a plant is relative: it is more lively than a stone, but much less lively than a brute animal, let alone a human. Futhermore, plants have (or at least manifest) no intelligence, cousciousness, or spirituality—the characterisics that disctinct humans from animals, who (supposedly) live by instincts. This is how the verb came to denote human activity that is below human dignity and behooves a lazy cow.

P.S. vigorous, active, and lively are not, as you say, connotations, but meanings of the original Latin word.

Answer 2

From Aristotlean Philosophy, happened during the 16th century with Francis Bacon & the people that surrounded him.

As Commenter Anton Shepelev has accidentally found the formulaic logic that Bacon imposes on Aristotles conception of the states of being.

The greatest indicator we can find directly to Bacons work effecting the interpretation of the vegetate and all stems and related words is his theory's on matter in which he presents vegetables as giving the basis for vitalistic spirits, but these spirits acting as the basis for vegetation itself acting in a monistic attachment.

This also explains the transformation of the word into it being turned into the negative of itself.

This Etymology is the path that makes the most sense to me

Answer 3

Technically, you could say the usage takes the meaning because of its etymology.

Vegetate inherits a meaning of passive existence from Aristotelian philosophy translated through the medieval scholastic tradition into the Middle English adjective vegetatif. In early modern English, the verb vegetate emerges referring to growth, and by the 18th century vegetate adopts its modern, figurative sense of passive existence.

Philosophy and Theology

In Aristotle's De Anima, Aristotle specifies three souls (Wikipedia):

• vegetative soul - growth, reproduction
• sensitive soul - mobility, sensation
• rational soul - thought, reflection

Plants are considered only vegetative because they were thought to be incapable of movement, sensation, or thought. Animals are considered to have vegetative and sensitive souls, incapable only of intellectual work. Humans are considered to have all three souls. So, conceptually, vegetative means growth and is also associated with the absence of movement or thought.

De Anima enters the medieval scholastic tradition via a long path through Arabic, including a commentary by Avicenna in the early 1000s and a translation into Latin by Michael Scot in the early 1200s (Wikipedia). Bartholomeus Anglicus uses the term in his De Proprietatibus Rerum (c.1240; see next section for how it's used). A commentary by Thomas Aquinas written near the end of his life (1270s) probably relied on a new Greek translation of the text by William of Moerbeke (Wikipedia). In Aquinas's commentary, the etymological connection to modern English is already clear: anima vegetabilis (vegetative soul). The vegetative soul is one that promotes growth; it cannot by itself produce movement or thought.

The Adjective Vegetative in Middle English

Early Middle English sources draw on the distinctions developed by Aristotle (via the scholastic tradition) to describe what is growing but inert. See these examples from the Middle English Dictionary, vegetatif:

(a1398) Trev.Barth.(Add 27944:Seymour) [John Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus, De Proprietatibus Rerum (c.1240)] 102/30 : In diuers bodies beþ þre maner soules…vegetabilis þat ʒif lif and no felinge as in plauntis and rotis, sensibilis þat ʒeueþ lif and felinge and noʒt resoun in vnskilful bestes, racionalis þat ʒeueþ lif, felinge, and resoun in men…þe vegetatiue [L anima vegetabilis] desireþ to be, þe sensibil desireþ to be wel and þe resonabil soule desireþ to be best.

[Modern spelling: In diverse bodies be three manner of souls [...]: vegetabilis, that gives life and no feeling as in plants and roots; sensibilis, that gives live and feeling and not reason in unskilful beasts; rationalis, that gives life, feeling, and reason in men. [...] The vegetative desires to be, the sensible desires to be well, and the reasonable soul desires to be best.]

Vegetatif means two things: growth and stasis. Your def. 1, "passive existence without exertion of body or mind" is already consistent with this adjective form, entwined with the sense of def. 2a, to grow. Both meanings started together.

The Verb Vegetate in Early Modern English

Vegetate, as a verb, emerges in early modern English (OED, "vegetate, v."), with the earliest citations around 1600. Its figurative use, now applied to people who are static (def. 6a) emerges by 1740. Note how the two quotes both contrast vegetate and live, as a meaningful active life can't be had while vegetating:

1740 C. Cibber Apol. Life C. Cibber i. 15 The Man who chuses never to laugh..seems to me only in the quiet State of a green Tree; he vegetates, 'tis true, but shall we say he lives?

1777 G. Forster Voy. round World I. 542 In short, we rather vegetated than lived.

By this point the Aristotelian meaning is still around, as is the growth meaning, but the figurative passive meaning has developed as a distinct usage.