To fill or supply with inhabitants; to live in or inhabit a place. In modern usage, it can also mean to fill something with data, items, or content.
From Latin 'populatus,' past participle of 'populare' meaning to ravage or lay waste, ironically. The modern positive sense of 'filling with people' developed through Medieval Latin 'populare' meaning to people or inhabit, showing how word meanings can completely reverse over time.
The irony of 'populate' is fascinating—it originally meant to destroy or devastate, but now means to fill with life! This complete meaning reversal reflects changing attitudes toward human settlement: what ancient Romans saw as conquest, we now see as development and growth.
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