To grow rapidly and excessively like a fungus; in medicine, to form abnormal growths or tissue protrusions.
From fungus + -ate (Latin verbal suffix). The -ate suffix creates verbs meaning 'to cause to be' or 'to become.' Medical professionals adopted this verb to describe the characteristic rapid, explosive growth of certain fungal infections or tumor-like growths that resemble fungal fruiting bodies.
Medical language is full of verbs made from nouns with the -ate suffix ('perforate,' 'ulcerate,' 'granulate'), and doctors use them because they pack a whole concept—the action, its character, and its source—into one word, which is faster to say and write than 'to grow like a fungus does.'
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