Other forms: partaking, partakes
To partake is to take a share of food or of an activity. Partake of the meal, partake in the discussion, partake of a drink.
It is deliberately formal and often faintly comic in modern speech — nobody says it plainly about a sandwich. Partake of takes food and drink, and partake in takes activities, though take part is the ordinary phrase for the second. Note that partake was made backwards from part-taking, which was itself a translation of the Latin particeps. The past is partook.
1verbpartakeTo take a share of food or of an activity.
“Guests are invited to partake in the traditional dance after dinner.”
partake is a taking a share.
Partake is a back-formation from part-taking, itself a translation of Latin particeps, sharing. The verb was invented to fit a noun that already existed.
Middle English
part-takinge
English, today
partake
Built from
Back-formation from Middle English part-takinge, part-takynge (“a sharing; partaking”), a calque of Latin particeps (“participating”); equivalent to part + take. Compare take part. In the sense of taking a share or portion of something, displaced native onbītan.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA