/rɪˈleɪt/
[verb] To tell or describe something to someone, or to show or find a connection between two or more things. It can also mean to feel that you understand and share someone else's feelings or experiences.
Every time you 'relate' to someone, you are literally carrying something back to them — the word comes from a Latin word meaning 'to bring back'.
The story of 'relate' begins in Latin, with the verb 'ferre', meaning 'to carry' or 'to bear'. When Latin speakers wanted to describe carrying something back or returning it, they combined the prefix 're-' (meaning 'back' or 'again') with a special form of 'ferre' — its past participle 'latus' — to create 'relatus'. From this came the infinitive 'relāre', which in classical usage meant 'to bring back', 'to report', or 'to refer something to a higher authority'. The image at the heart of the word is a physical one: a messenger carrying news back to someone waiting for it.
Latin 'relāre' passed into Medieval Latin and then into Old French as 'relater', where it kept the sense of reporting or recounting events. This French form was then carried into English during the 16th century, arriving in a period when the language was actively borrowing from both French and Latin to build a richer vocabulary for intellectual and legal life. Early English uses of 'relate' were quite formal, appearing in legal and official writing to describe the act of reporting facts or referring a matter to someone in authority.
As 'relate' settled into English, its meaning began to spread outward in natural and interesting directions. The sense of 'telling a story' or 'recounting events' became very common — writers would 'relate' tales and travellers would 'relate' their adventures. This use kept the original idea of carrying something back, but now the thing being carried was information, narrative, or memory, delivered from speaker to listener across the gap of experience.
At the same time, a more abstract meaning developed: the idea of a connection or relationship between things. If you could 'carry' one thing back to another — linking them, showing they belonged together — then 'relate' began to express logical and conceptual connection. This gave English the whole family of words built on the same root: 'relation', 'relative', 'relationship', and 'correlation'. These all trace back through Latin 'relatus' to the original image of carrying and returning.
Perhaps the most modern and emotionally rich use of 'relate' arrived much later, in the 20th century, particularly in the context of psychology and everyday conversation. To say 'I can relate to that' means something quite personal — that you recognise in another person's experience a reflection of your own. This usage takes the old idea of connection and gives it a deeply human, emotional dimension. Here, relating is not just about logic or storytelling; it is about feeling seen and understood. It is remarkable how far this little word has travelled — from a Roman messenger carrying dispatches home, to a friend saying, 'Yes, I know exactly what you mean.'