Informate

Informate is an English verb meaning to provide information to someone; to inform. In contemporary usage the form is extremely rare and regarded as archaic or an occasioning nonce word. Most writers would use inform or educate to express the same idea. Because of its rarity, attestations occur mainly in historical texts, word-formation discussions, or philological investigations rather than everyday prose.

Etymology and sense: The word is formed with the standard English agent suffix -ate added to the verb inform, tracing back to Latin informare meaning to shape, form, or inform. Through the centuries, the form informate has appeared sporadically in English to signal the act of informing, especially in discussions about language or rhetoric, though the sense remains identical to "inform" when it does appear.

Usage and status: In modern reference works informate is typically labeled as obsolete or rare. When encountered, it is often in pedantic, historical, or linguistic contexts rather than as a common synonym for inform. The more common related terms are information (noun), inform (verb), and informative (adjective). See also: informatic, informatics, information.