Other forms: captivating, captivated, captivates
To captivate is to hold somebody's attention completely by charm. Captivate the audience, utterly captivated, captivate a room.
It is entirely positive, which is the odd thing about it — the word means to take captive, and being captivated is being willingly held. It is used of performers, stories and people. Note captive and capture, from the same Latin verb meaning to seize.
1verbcaptivateTo hold somebody's attention completely by charm.
“The storyteller captivated the children, who sat perfectly still until the end.”
captivate is a charming.
Latin captivare comes from captivus, a captive, from capere, to seize. Capture, captive and receive come from the same seizing.
Proto-Indo-European
*kap-
Latin
captīvātus
English, today
captivate
Built from
Latin captīvātus, the perfect passive participle of captīvō (“to capture”), from Latin captīvus (“captive, prisoner”) (ultimately from capiō (“to capture, seize”), from Proto-Indo-European kap- (“to hold; to seize”)) + -ō. Equivalent to captive + -ate.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA