imbibe

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English embiben, also enbiben and imbiben,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French embiber (“to soak into”) and directly borrowed from Latin imbibō (“to drink in, absorb, inhale”).^[4][5][6][7] Most dictionaries agree on the Latin verb but differ on the French step: the Middle English Dictionary and the Shorter Oxford derive the word only from the Latin verb,^[2][8] while Hoad and Merriam-Webster Unabridged take the sense "soak" from French and the other senses from Latin.^[9][7] The OED notes that the early English forms point to French, although French imbiber is not recorded before the 16th century, and that the French verb, apparently formed from Latin to match the participle imbu, took on the meanings of Latin imbuō, which the English verb adopted too.^[6] The Latin verb is formed from in- (“in”) and bibō (“to drink”),^{[6][10][11][3]} related to pōtō (“to drink”),^[4][5] from Proto-Indo-European *po(i)- (“to drink”).^[4][3] Latin bibō also lies behind beer, beverage and bibulous.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

To soak or saturate with a liquid: the first record is about 1386 in Chaucer's Canon's Yeoman's Tale,^[6] in the alchemical participle enbibyng,^[13] which Barnhart dates to about 1395.^[5] Later Middle English examples come from medical works, of veins feeding an ulcer and of ingredients worked into grease.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The English word began with the French idea of soaking something, and only later took up the Latin idea of drinking in.^[9][6] The spelling with im- is recorded probably before 1425 but did not become common until the 1500s.^[5] The figurative "drink in" of knowledge and ideas, the main sense in classical Latin, appears in English from 1555.^[4][6] Literal drinking is dated to the mid-15th century by Etymonline^[4] but to 1621 by the OED, which includes inhaling air and tobacco smoke.^[6] From 1626 the word was also used of taking up gases, heat or light, and of things that suck up moisture from 1651.^[6] Johnson (1755) gave "to drink in" and "to admit into the mind" first, and considered "to drench; to soak" unusual, though needed unless imbue were adopted.^[14] The sense "soak" died out, with the OED's last record in 1804.^[6] In modern use the word often refers to drinking alcohol, and is formal or humorous.^[11][15][3]

Timeline

• c. 1386 – to soak or saturate with moisture (obsolete by 1804).^[6][13]
• before 1425 – first spelling with im-.^[5]
• 1555 – to take knowledge or ideas into the mind.^[6][4]
• 1621 – of a person or animal, to drink; to inhale.^[6][16]
• 1622 – figurative, to imbue (obsolete by 1707).^[6]
• 1626 – to take up a gas, heat or light.^[6][16]
• 1651 – of a thing, to suck up moisture.^[6][16]

Meanings

Verb

1. To drink, especially alcoholic drinks; often formal or humorous: They had imbibed rather freely by the end of the wedding.^{[15][3][11][7]}
2. To take ideas or knowledge into the mind and keep them; to assimilate: He imbibed his mother's love of poetry.^{[15][3][7][11]}
3. To take in as if by drinking: We walked along the cliffs imbibing the sea air.^[15][3]
4. To absorb moisture: The dry soil imbibed the rain at once.^[7][15][6]
5. To take up a gas, light or heat, or take something into solution.^[7][6]
6. (botany) Of seeds, to absorb water; also, to place seeds in water for this purpose.^[11]
7. (obsolete, c. 1386–1804) To soak or saturate with a liquid.^{[6][3][7][8][14]}

Word family

• imbiber
• imbibition

Related words

• imbue
• imbrue
• bibulous
• beverage
• beer
• potion
• potable

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b c d e Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
14. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
16. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)