Other forms: related, relating, relates
To relate something is to tell somebody about it in detail. Relate the story, as he related it, she related what had happened.
That sense is formal and slightly literary. The commoner uses are relate to, meaning to concern — questions relating to the accounts — and relate to somebody, meaning to understand and sympathise with them: I can relate to that. Note related, meaning both connected and belonging to the same family; relation and relationship; and that relatable is a recent adjective meaning easy to identify with.
1verbrelateTo tell somebody about something in detail.
“He related the whole thing twice and it changed slightly.”
2verbconnectedTo be connected with something.
“The police want to speak to anyone with information that relates to the robbery.”
3verbunderstandTo understand and sympathise with somebody.
“Nobody in the room could relate to any of it.”
relate is a telling or connecting.
Latin relatus is the past participle of referre, to carry back — re- plus ferre. Relate, refer and relation are the same verb, and relating a story is carrying it back to somebody.
Proto-Indo-European
*telh₂- (bear)
Latin
relātus
English, today
relate
Built from
From Latin relātus, perfect passive participle of referō (“carry back; report”), see -ate. a doublet of refer. See also infer, collate and confer, delate and defer, as well as prefer and prelate among others.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA