procrastination (English)
Where does "procrastination" come from?
The word procrastination traces back to the Latin term crās, meaning 'tomorrow.' It evolved into the Latin verb prōcrāstināre, literally meaning to 'put forward until tomorrow,' before passing through Middle French to enter the English language. This linguistic journey highlights a centuries-old human tendency to delay tasks by pushing them into the future.
Full etymology tree
- procrastination (English), 'The act of postponing, delaying or putting off, especially habitually or intentionally.'
- inherited procrastination (Middle French)
- inherited prōcrāstinātiō (Latin), 'a putting off until tomorrow; procrastination'
- derived prōcrāstinō (Latin), 'to put off until tomorrow; to defer, delay, procrastinate'
- compound prō- (Latin), 'forward direction, forward movement'
- compound crāstinus (Latin), 'tomorrow's'
- derived crās (Latin), 'tomorrow'
- inherited *krās (Proto-Italic), 'tomorrow'
- inherited *ḱerh₂- (Proto-Indo-European), 'head, top'
- inherited *krās (Proto-Italic), 'tomorrow'
- suffix -tinus (Latin), 'Creates adjectives from temporal adverbs.'
- derived crās (Latin), 'tomorrow'
- suffix -tiō (Latin), '-tion, -ation, -ing; suffixed to verbs to form action nouns denoting a process, action, or result of an action.'
- derived prōcrāstinō (Latin), 'to put off until tomorrow; to defer, delay, procrastinate'
- inherited prōcrāstinātiō (Latin), 'a putting off until tomorrow; procrastination'
- inherited procrastination (Middle French)
Updated July 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris