infuse

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English infusen, also enfusen,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Latin īnfūsus, the past participle of īnfundō (“to pour in”),^{[5][4][6][7][8][9]} and perhaps also borrowed from Middle French infuser, which the OED finds in the 15th and 16th centuries.^[5][10][3] The MED and the American Heritage Dictionary give only the French source.^[2][11] The Latin verb is formed from in- (“in”) and fundō (“to pour, melt”),^[5][4][11] from a nasalized form of Proto-Indo-European *gheu- (“to pour”).^[4][11] Fuse, "to melt", and found, "to cast metal", go back to the same Latin verb.^[12][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

To pour on or upon, to shed: about 1420, in Palladius on Husbondrie,^[5] a text the MED dates to about 1440.^[2] The sense "to pour a liquid into something" is dated probably before 1425 by Barnhart,^[10] with a medical text of that date in the MED, where an aposteme in the ear is to be infused softly with soft wool.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word first belonged to liquids, and medical writers used it early on for bathing or soaking.^[2] The figurative sense of instilling something as if by pouring is recorded from 1526, in Bonde's Pylgrimage of Perfection,^[5][10] and it was used especially of God imparting grace and of nature implanting innate knowledge.^[5] Steeping a plant in liquid to draw out its properties appears from 1541, in Elyot's Castel of Helthe,^[5] though the Shorter Oxford puts it in Middle English and the MED has a sense of soaking something porous.^[6][2] The construction then reversed: from 1560 one could infuse the liquid, or a person, with a quality, instead of infusing the quality into them.^[5][6] Hence the modern infused with.^[6][13] Johnson (1755) gave "to pour in; to instil" and "to pour into the mind; to inspire".^[14] Medicine uses the word for introducing a fluid into a vein.^[6] In Warwickshire dialect infuse meant simply "to inform".^[15] English also briefly had an adjective (1502–47), from French infus, and a noun (1568–96), from Latin īnfūsus (“a pouring in”).^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1420 – to pour on or upon, to shed (obsolete by 1672).^[5]
• before 1425 – to pour a liquid into something; to soak.^[10][2] The OED's first quotation for pouring in is from before 1475.^[5]
• 1526 – to instil, to introduce as if by pouring.^[5][10]
• 1541 – to steep a plant in liquid.^[5]
• 1560 – to affect a liquid by steeping; to imbue a person or thing with a quality.^[5]
• 1614 – intransitive, to undergo steeping.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To fill a person or thing with a quality or feeling; to imbue or inspire: The new coach infused the squad with confidence.^[13][3][5]
2. To introduce a quality or idea into something; to instil: She infused a little humour into her lectures.^[13][3][6]
3. To steep a herb, tea or the like in liquid in order to extract its flavour or properties: Infuse the mint leaves in hot water for five minutes.^[13][5][6]
4. Of a herb or tea, to undergo steeping.^[13][5][6]
5. To flavour a liquid by steeping something in it, usually in the passive: an olive oil infused with rosemary.^[6][5]
6. (medicine) To introduce a fluid into a vein or tissue.^[6]
7. (rare) To pour a liquid into something.^[13][5][3]
8. (obsolete, c. 1420–1672) To pour on or upon; to shed.^[5][6]

Word family

• infuser
• uninfused
• infusible
• infusive
• reinfuse
• superinfuse

Related words

• infusion
• suffuse
• fuse
• found

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)