Where does deteriorate come from?
Score: 4.8/5 (36 votes) deteriorate (v.) 1640s, transitive, "make worse, reduce in quality," from Late Latin deterioratus, past participle of deteriorare "get worse; make worse," from Latin deterior "worse, lower, inferior, meaner," contrastive of *deter "bad, lower," from PIE *de-tero-, from demons...