Etymologically
Log in

fuse

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 26 October 2026 at 01:27. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

fuse1 to melt

Etymology

To melt is borrowed from Latin fūsus (“poured, melted”), the past participle of fundō (“to pour, melt”),[2][3][4][5][6] from Proto-Indo-European *gheu-.[7] Etymonline takes it as a back-formation from fusion;[8] Barnhart thinks it probably a back-formation from fusible or fusion, perhaps influenced by French fuser, or possibly borrowed from Middle French fuser.[9][10] Weekley notes that the verb came in much later than some of its derivatives.[11] The Latin verb is also the source of found "to cast metal" and foundry.[6][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make fluid by intense heat; to melt: 1681, in a table of hard words in S. Pordage's translation of Willis, according to the OED,[2][9] or the 1680s in Etymonline.[8] Merriam-Webster gives an earlier first known use, 1592,[4] and the Shorter Oxford dates the verb to the late 16th century.[3]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) gives both a transitive verb, to melt or liquefy by heat, and an intransitive one, to be melted.[12] The intransitive sense "to become liquid with heat" is recorded from 1800,[2][8] and the figurative sense "to blend into one whole, as if by melting together" from 1817, in Coleridge.[2][8] An 18th-century medical sense, to thin the blood, is now archaic.[2][4][3] In anatomy, from 1870, bones or vessels are said to fuse when they grow together.[2] The electrical fuse, a strip or wire that melts and breaks the circuit when the current is too strong, is traced by the OED, the Shorter Oxford and Collins to this verb;[2][3][13] the OED's first record is from 1884, Merriam-Webster's from 1868.[2][4] Etymonline and Barnhart instead take it from the detonating fuse2, named for its shape, and call the link with melting a mistake.[8][10] From the electrical fuse came the verb sense "to fail when a fuse melts" (1887) and to fuse a circuit, to fit it with a fuse (1894).[2]

Timeline

  • 1592 – first known use, to melt, in Merriam-Webster.[4]
  • 1681 – to melt, to make fluid by heat (OED).[2][9]
  • 1705 – to thin the blood (now archaic).[2]
  • 1800 – intransitive, to melt.[2][8]
  • 1817 – figurative, to blend into one whole.[2][8]
  • 1868 – noun, an electrical fuse, in Merriam-Webster.[4]
  • 1870 – in anatomy, to grow together.[2]
  • 1884 – noun, an electrical fuse (OED).[2][10]
  • 1887 – of an electric light or appliance, to fail when a fuse melts.[2]
  • 1894 – to fit a circuit with a fuse.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To melt something, or to become liquid, by intense heat.[4][13][2]
  2. To join two things, or to become joined, by melting them together: The heat of the kiln fused the glass beads into one lump.[4][2]
  3. To blend or unite into one whole, as if by melting: The band fuses jazz with folk music.[4][2]
  4. (anatomy) Of bones or vessels, to grow together.[2]
  5. Of an electric appliance or light, to stop working because a fuse has melted; to make it stop working in this way.[2][3][13]
  6. To fit a circuit or plug with a fuse.[2][3]
  7. (archaic) To thin the blood.[4][2][3]

Noun

  1. A safety device in an electric circuit, a strip or wire of metal with a low melting point that melts and breaks the circuit when the current is too strong.[4][2][13]
  2. blow a fuse: to cause a fuse to fail; figuratively, to react with sudden anger.[3]

Word family

  • fuse box
  • fuse wire

fuse2 detonating device

Etymology

The detonating device is borrowed from Italian fuso (“spindle”),[2][8][4][3][5][6] from Latin fūsus (“spindle”),[2][8][6] a word of uncertain or unknown origin;[8][10][6] Klein thinks it probably derives from the past participle of fundō (“to pour”).[14] The name comes from the spindle shape of the first such devices, long thin tubes filled with gunpowder.[8][6][2] Barnhart and Etymonline think it was also influenced by French fusée (“spindleful of hemp fibre”) and by the English fusee, a musket fired by a fuse.[10][8] The Latin word also gave, through a diminutive, French fuseau (“spindle”), the source of fuselage.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A tube, cord or casing filled with combustible material, used to ignite a shell, bomb or blasting charge: 1644 in Merriam-Webster and Barnhart,[4][10] 1647 in the OED, from N. Nye's Art of Gunnery.[2] Etymonline dates it to the 1640s.[8]

Semantic evolution

From 1766 fuse also meant the prepared material cut into lengths to make fuses.[2] The verb, to fit a bomb or the like with a fuse, appears in 1802.[4][3] The word came to cover any device that sets off the charge of a shell, bomb or torpedo, as by impact, often spelled fuze, especially in American use.[4][13][3] The figurative short fuse, a quick temper, comes from it.[2] In South African slang a fuse is a cigarette, recorded from 1977.[15]

Timeline

  • 1644 – a cord or tube for setting off an explosive.[4][10]
  • 1647 – first OED record.[2]
  • 1766 – material from which fuses are cut.[2]
  • 1802 – verb, to fit with a fuse.[4]
  • 1977 – South African slang, a cigarette.[15]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A cord or tube filled with a combustible or explosive material, lit to set off a charge: The miners lit the fuse and ran for cover.[4][13][2]
  2. Also fuze: a device that sets off the charge of a shell, bomb or torpedo, as by impact or at a set time.[4][13][3]

Verb

  1. Also fuze: to fit a bomb or mine with a fuse.[4][13][3]

Word family

  • fuseless
  • defuse
  • proximity fuse
  • safety fuse

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  9. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  14. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  15. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com