inundate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin inundātus, the past participle of inundō (“to flood, overflow”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} formed from in- (“in, onto”) and undō (“to rise in waves, flow”),^[3][7][6] from unda (“wave”),^[3][7][8] the source also of undulate, redundant and surround.^[9] It goes back to Proto-Indo-European *wed- (“water”), and so is related to water.^[7][9] Barnhart and Etymonline see instead, or as well, a back-formation from inundation, with -ate,^[10][5] a noun that the Middle English Dictionary takes from inundātiō.^[11] The Latin verb also gave Spanish inundar and French inonder.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To flood with water: 1590 in Merriam-Webster Unabridged,^[3] and the late 16th century in the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English.^[12][13] The OED, in an entry not fully revised, has as its first record Cockeram's English Dictionarie of 1623, also Barnhart's date, and Etymonline gives the 1620s.^[6][10][5]

Semantic evolution

The literal and figurative senses appear close together: the Shorter Oxford dates the figurative "overwhelm, provide in abundance" to the early 17th century,^[12] and the OED has it in 1623, while its first quotation for the literal flooding is only from 1791, in Beloe's Herodotus.^[6] Merriam-Webster Unabridged separates a flooding as if with water, which it illustrates from Hardy's "red blood inundated her face", from the overwhelming by great numbers or by too much of something.^[3] The Shorter Oxford quotes George Washington's "I was inundated with letters".^[12]

Timeline

• 1590 – to flood with water.^[3] The OED's first quotation for this is from 1791.^[6]
• 1623 – to fill with an overflowing abundance; to overwhelm.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cover with a flood of water; to submerge: Spring rains inundated the orchards along the river.^[14][3][6]
2. To overwhelm with great numbers or too much of something; to swamp: The office was inundated with complaints after the announcement.^[14][3][6]

Word family

• inundation
• inundator
• inundatory

Related words

• undulate
• water
• redundant
• surround
• abound

Usage notes

The stress is now mostly on the first syllable, but the OED notes that dictionaries do not show this before about 1880, and that later ones still preferred stress on the second syllable.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ 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)
12. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins