hallucinate
UK[həˈluː.sɪ.neɪt]US[həˈluː.sə.neɪt]
v
to experience things that seem real but are created by your mind, especially when you are ill or have taken drugs
v
to perceive something that is not actually present
Etymology
the verb 'hallucinate' entered english in the 17th century, derived from the latin 'hallucinatus', the past participle of 'hallucinari', meaning 'to wander in mind' or 'to dream'. this latin term is believed to be an alteration of the greek verb 'alyein', which means 'to be distraught' or 'to wander'. the semantic journey moved from a general sense of mental wandering to the specific modern medical and psychological meaning of perceiving non-existent sensory phenomena. the word's form was solidified in english through scholarly use, and its spelling has remained largely unchanged from its latin source.
Analysis
the word is a simplex loanword from latin. it does not contain separable, meaningful english morphemes that are direct substrings of the current spelling.
Examples
the fever caused him to hallucinate and see strange creatures on the walls.
some people may hallucinate if they are deprived of sleep for an extended period.
the patient reported that the medication made her hallucinate vividly.