Other forms: curated, curating, curates
To curate is to select and arrange works for an exhibition. Curate the show, a curated selection, curated by the gallery.
The word has spread enormously and is now used of playlists and menus, which purists object to and nobody stops. As a noun with the stress on the first syllable, a curate is an assistant parish priest.
1verbcurateTo select and arrange works for an exhibition.
“She was asked to curate an exhibition of young African photographers.”
curate is a selecting.
Medieval Latin curatus means one who has care of something, from cura, care.
Proto-Indo-European
*kʷeys-
Medieval Latin
cūrātus — one who has been curated, a curate
English, today
curate
Borrowed from Medieval Latin cūrātus (“one who has been curated, a curate”), a substantivation of the perfect passive participle of cūrō. a doublet of curato. Equivalent to cure + -ate.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA