Word Power: Procrastination

Today’s lesson in Word Power is to understand the etymology and history behind the word procrastination.

Procrastinate (Verb): [pro-cras-ti-nate]

1. To put off doing something, especially out of habitual carelessness or laziness.
2. To postpone or delay needlessly.  (American Heritage Dictionary)

Etymology

The first thing you should notice is that the definition above is for the word procrastinate and not procrastination, however from the last Word Power, you already know that the suffix -ion simply makes the preceding word a noun meaning an act of.  Therefore, procrastination is the act of procrastinating.  Like many of the words that we use today, this word has its origins in the Latin language.  The Latin word that gave birth to the word procrastinate is procrastinus, which is the combination of the Latin words pro and crastinus.

Pro

Pro is a Latin preposition meaning for, forward, in favor of, etc.  As is usually the case, translation of a Latin word depends on context.  We see the Latin word pro used in everyday fashion, in such words as provoke (to call forward) or promote (to move forward).  We also commonly see pro used when showing favor for certain information, as in when we use pro’s and con’s to evaluate data.

Crastinus

Crastinus is a Latin adjective meaning of tomorrow, belonging to tomorrow, etc.  However, the word that is most important to notice within crastinus is cras.  The definition of cras literally means tomorrow.  The ending -tinus was added to cras to make it an adjective that could grammatically match any noun in number and case.  Unfortunately, there are no traces of the Latin word cras in the English language today.

Summary

Initially, the word procrastinus was developed to serve as a Latin adjective meaning “in favor of tomorrow”.  However, the Romans used this adjective to make a new verb.  The Latin verb that procrastinus gave way to was procrastinare (infinitive), which means to put off till the morrow, delay, etc.  Through the evolution of languages, procrastinare lead to the word procrastinate, which literally means “to be in favor of (doing) tomorrow”.

Extra Credit

The word procrastination reminds me of term papers, studying for tests, and pretty much anything school related.  For others it might remind them of last minute Christmas shopping or booking plane tickets.  Do not fear we, procrastinators, are not alone in this.  In a 2007 study, Piers Steel, a University of Calgary professor, noted that 26% of Americans considered themselves as chronic procrastinators.  Dr. Steel attributes procrastination with a rise in the distractions that affect most people.  With the increasing diagnosis of ADD and SLOT, people have more reason(s) to procrastinate.  Just remind yourself that when you are procrastinating, you are really planning on doing it tomorrow, not next week.

Tune in next Thursday for a breakdown of the word Muscle.  If anybody has any words that they would like to know the etymology of, then let me know.

Image Used in this Post

Prague Town Hall Clock image courtesy of Flickr user kainet published under the CC license.