Meaning

noun someone to whom private matters are confided

verb give to understand

verb imply as a possibility

originBorrowed from Latin intimātus, the perfect passive participle of intimō (“to put or bring into, to impress, to make familiar”) (see -ate (adjective forming suffix)), from intimus (“inmost, innermost, most intimate”), superlative of intus (“within”), from in (“in”); see interior.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0