To infatuate someone is to make them feel a strong but often foolish or short-lived love or admiration. It usually suggests that the feeling is not very deep or wise.
It comes from Latin “infatuare,” meaning “to make foolish” or “to make stupid,” from “fatuus” (foolish). The idea was that strong blind attraction makes a person act silly or unreasonable.
To be infatuated is, at its root, to be “made foolish” by your feelings. That’s why crushes can feel overwhelming but also unrealistic. The word gently warns us: intense attraction isn’t the same as real understanding.
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