invite
Meaning
To ask someone politely or formally to come to an event or place.
To make something, especially something bad, more likely to happen.
Structure
Usage
We would like to invite you to our wedding next month.
Leaving your car unlocked is just inviting trouble.
The speaker invited questions from the audience at the end of the lecture.
Etymology
The word 'invite' entered English in the mid-16th century from the Latin invītāre, meaning "to ask someone in, to entertain, to summon." The Latin verb is composed of the prefix in- (towards) and the root -vītāre, which is a frequentative form related to vīsō (to go to see) and ultimately to videō (to see). The literal sense is thus "to call someone towards oneself." Over time, the meaning softened from a general summoning to the modern, more polite sense of asking someone courteously to attend. The secondary meaning, "to provoke an unwanted outcome," developed from the idea of issuing a figurative "call" for trouble.
Analysis
- in: Latin origin, meaning "in, into, towards". Functions as a prefix indicating direction or inward action. - vite: From Latin vītāre, a frequentative form of vīsō (I go to see, I visit), itself from videō (I see). In this compound, it carries the sense "to call" or "to summon".