Origin: Latin suffix -ate
Intimate has 14 different meanings across 3 categories:
To suggest or disclose (something) discreetly.
"She did not shout her surprise but intimate it with a barely perceptible frown."
In plain English: To be intimate means to share your deepest feelings and personal thoughts with someone you trust completely.
"They do not know each other well enough to be intimate friends, so they never share their deepest secrets."
marked by close acquaintance, association, or familiarity
"intimate friend"
"intimate relations between economics, politics, and legal principles"
thoroughly acquainted through study or experience
"this girl, so intimate with nature"
"knowledgeable about the technique of painting"
Closely acquainted; familiar.
"After years of living next door, they became so intimate that they knew each other's schedules without asking."
In plain English: Intimate means having a very close and personal relationship with someone you know well.
"They shared an intimate dinner by candlelight in their small apartment."
Usage: Use intimate as an adjective to describe people who are very close and share deep personal knowledge, such as intimate friends. Do not confuse this with the verb form meaning to reveal something secretly in conversation.
Borrowed from Latin intimātus, the perfect passive participle of intimō ("to put or bring into, to impress, to make familiar") (see -ate (adjective forming suffix)), from intimus ("inmost, innermost, most intimate"), superlative of intus ("within"), from in ("in"); see interior.