Origin and history of circumstantiate

c. 1200, "a fact related to another fact and modifying it without affecting its essential nature" (originally in reference to sins), from Old French circonstance "circumstance, situation," also literally, "outskirts" (13c., Modern French circonstance), from Latin circumstantia "surrounding condition," neuter plural of circumstans (genitive circumstantis), present participle of circumstare "stand around, surround, encompass, occupy, take possession of" from circum "around" (see circum-) + stare "to stand," from PIE root *sta- "to stand, make or be firm." The Latin word is a loan-translation of Greek peristasis.

Meaning "a person's surroundings, environment" is from mid-14c. Meaning "a particular detail, matter of small consequence" is from c. 1300; sense of "that which is non-essential" is from 1590s. Obsolete sense of "formality about an important event, ceremonious accompaniment" (late 14c.) lingers in Shakespeare's phrase pomp and circumstance ("Othello" III, iii), taken by Edward Elgar as the title of his military march (1901), which is a staple of U.S. graduations.

verbal suffix for Latin verbs in -are, identical to -ate (1). Old English commonly made verbs from adjectives by adding a verbal ending to the word (such as gnornian "be sad, mourn," gnorn "sad, depressed"), but as the inflections wore off English words in late Old and early Middle English, there came to be no difference between the adjective and the verb in dry, empty, warm, etc. Thus accustomed to the identity of adjectival and verbal forms of a word, the English, when they began to expand their Latin-based vocabulary after c. 1500, simply made verbs from Latin past-participial adjectives without changing their form (such as aggravate, substantiate) and it became the custom that Latin verbs were Englished from their past participle stems.