- integrate (v.)
- 1630s, "to render (something) whole," from L. integratus, pp. of integrare "make whole," from integer "whole" (see integer). Meaning "to put together parts or elements and combine them into a whole" is from 1802. Integrate in the "racially desegregate" sense is a back formation from integration, dating to the 1948 to U.S. presidential contest.