-ate

CIDE DICTIONARY

-ate,  [From the L. suffix -atus, the past participle ending of verbs of the 1st conj.].

•  As an ending of participles or participial adjectives it is equivalent to -ed; as, situate or situated; animate or animated.  [1913 Webster]
•  As the ending of a verb, it means to make, to cause, to act, etc.; as, to propitiate (to make propitious); to animate (to give life to).  [1913 Webster]
•  As a noun suffix, it marks the agent; as, curate, delegate. It also sometimes marks the office or dignity; as, tribunate.  [1913 Webster]
•  In chemistry it is used to denote the salts formed from those acids whose names end -ic (excepting binary or halogen acids); as, sulphate from sulphuric acid, nitrate from nitric acid, etc. It is also used in the case of certain basic salts.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

-ate, suffix.
1 forming nouns denoting: a status or office (doctorate; episcopate). b state or function (curate; magistrate; mandate).
2 Chem. forming nouns denoting the salt of an acid with a corresponding name ending in -ic (chlorate; nitrate).
3 forming nouns denoting a group (electorate).
4 Chem. forming nouns denoting a product (condensate; filtrate).

-ate, suffix.
1 forming adjectives and nouns (associate; delegate; duplicate; separate).
2 forming adjectives from Latin or English nouns and adjectives (cordate; insensate; Italianate).

-ate, suffix forming verbs (associate; duplicate; fascinate; hyphenate; separate).

Etymology

from or after (F -er f.) L - are (past part. -atus): cf. -ATE(2)