conflo

Forms

cōnflō (present infinitive cōnflāre, perfect active cōnflāvī, supine cōnflātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin con- + flō (“to blow”).^[2][3][1] De Vaan tentatively traces flō to Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₁- (“to blow”); if it is related to fleō (“to weep”), the root may have been without the aspirate, and how the present was formed is disputed.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[4] who threatens to light a fire on a man's head.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is to blow on a fire, start it or set something alight.^[2] Of feelings it is to stir up, as Cicero's hatred stirred up against someone, and of events to bring about, usually something bad, though Terence says a great friendship often grows from a bad beginning.^[2] Cicero uses it of hatching sedition and of concocting a charge, and of making one thing out of two.^[2] In metalwork it is to melt down or cast, as Propertius' gold of an image melted down and Varro's bars of silver and gold, and also to bring together an army or possessions, as Cicero's band of villains, and in Sallust to run up a debt.^[2] Church Latin glosses it “forge, melt, weld, refine, inflame, bring about”.^[5] English conflate, from its past participle, first meant to cast from molten metal, in the mid-15th century.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of lighting a fire.^[2][4][7]
• 190–159 BC – Terence of a friendship brought about.^[2][7]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of casting bars of silver and gold.^[2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of stirring up hatred and gathering a band.^[2][7]
• mid-15th century – English conflate, of casting metal.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To blow on a fire, kindle, set alight.^[2][8][1]
2. To stir up, arouse a feeling.^[2][1]
3. To bring about, cause; to hatch a conspiracy.^[2][5]
4. To invent, concoct.^[2]
5. To melt, melt down; to cast, forge.^[2][5][1]
6. To make by combining.^[2][1]
7. To bring together, assemble; to run up a debt.^[2][1]

Word family

• cōnflātilis
• cōnflātiō
• cōnflātor
• cōnflātōrium
• conflatura
• reconflō

Related words

• flō
• īnflō
• sufflō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press