confondere

Forms

confondere (first-person singular present confóndo, first-person singular past historic confùsi, past participle confùso, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin cōnfundō (“to pour together, mix; to disturb”), a compound of con- (“with, together”) and fundō (“to pour”).^[2][3][4][1] Nocentini and the GDLI class it as a learned word taken from Latin, and the DEI calls it an adaptation of the Latin verb.^[3][4][5] In Christian Latin the verb had also taken on the sense “to put to shame”.^[5]

The LEI, by contrast, lists the Italian verb among the continuations of the Latin verb, beside old and dialect forms such as Sicilian cunfùnniri and Tarantino kumbúnnərə.^[6] Following Lausberg, it takes the sense “to ruin” as popular and the sense “to disturb” as learned.^[6]

The Latin verb lives on in French confondre, Old Occitan cofondre, Catalan confondre, Spanish confundir, Portuguese confundir, Sardinian konfúndere, Friulian confondi and Romansh confuonder.^[7][6][3] The simple verb continues Proto-Indo-European *ǵhu-n-d- (“to pour”), a present with a nasal infix.^[8] Its initial f- is the only example of this outcome of PIE /ǵh/ and may be due to the following /u/.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur, from the last quarter of the 12th century.^[9] DELI's earliest dated sense is “to humble, mortify”, in Giacomo da Lentini before 1250.^[2][10] Prati quotes his line Ma ben ti ci confondo / Se tosto non vai (“But I will confound you well if you do not leave at once”), where the verb means to throw someone into such confusion that they cannot reply.^[11]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the verb covered a wide range: to mix several things into one, to ruin or destroy a person or a community, to blot out something abstract, to disturb a person's mind for a while, and to refute a theory or overcome an opponent with arguments.^[9][6] Iacopone used it for “to bewilder” before 1306, and Dante for “to mix without distinction” before 1321: la chiesa di Roma, / per confondere in sé due reggimenti, / cade nel fango (“the Church of Rome, by joining in itself two governments, falls into the mire”).^[2][4]

The sense “to mistake one thing or person for another” appears about 1540 in Guicciardini and is now one of the commonest.^[2][6] The religious sense “to humble, put to shame” survives in literary use, as in Manzoni's gli oppressor confonde (“confounds the oppressors”).^[10][12] Polite speech uses the verb for embarrassing someone with kindness: lei mi confonde answers a compliment.^[10][12] The reflexive confondersi means to mingle and disappear in a crowd, to lose the thread, or to make a mistake.^[13][14][15] Among the derivatives, confondibile was noted in 1745, with a record from 1673.^[2]

Timeline

• 1175–1200 – The Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur has the first record.^[9]
• Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses confondere for “to humble, mortify”.^[2]
• Before 1306 – Iacopone uses it for “to bewilder”.^[2]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses it for “to mix without distinction”.^[2]
• About 1540 – Guicciardini uses it for “to mistake one for another”.^[2][6]
• 1673 – Confondibile is first recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To mix up, jumble: to put things together without order: il gatto ha confuso i miei appunti.^{[10][16][13][15]}
2. To confuse, mistake: to take one thing or person for another: confondo sempre i due fratelli.^{[10][16][13][1]}
3. To blur, make indistinct, or dazzle the sight: la foschia confondeva il profilo dei monti.^[10][16][13]
4. To bewilder, disorient, or make someone lose the thread: non confondermi mentre conto.^{[10][16][14][1]}
5. To embarrass with too much kindness or praise.^[10][15][1]
6. (literary) To humble, put to shame, or overwhelm and destroy.^[10][14][13]
7. (reflexive, confondersi) To mingle and be lost among others: si confuse tra i turisti.^[13][14][15]
8. (reflexive, confondersi) To get muddled, or to make a mistake.^[13][14][15]
9. (reflexive, confondersi) To become vague or indistinct.^[13][14][15]

Word family

• confondibile
• confuso
• confusione
• confusionario
• confusionale
• confondimento
• confonditore
• confusivo
• riconfondere

Related words

• fondere
• Latin cōnfundō

Usage notes

Confondere is conjugated like fondere (past historic confusi, past participle confuso).^[16][13][1] Confondere le carte in tavola means to muddle a question so as to mislead an opponent.^[17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
5. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1058
6. ^ a b c d e f Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 17, 48
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
11. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 320
12. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ a b c d e f Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
16. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
17. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli