confundo

Forms

cōnfundō (present infinitive cōnfundere, perfect active cōnfūdī, supine cōnfūsum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from con- (“together”) and fundō (“to pour”).^[2][3][1] De Vaan derives ⟨fundō⟩ from Proto-Italic *χund- and the nasal present Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰu-n-d- (“to pour”), cognate with Ancient Greek χέω (khéō, “to pour”) and Gothic 𐌲𐌹𐌿𐍄𐌰𐌽 (giutan, “to pour”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it first in Plautus,^[3] where a cook “pours many sauces together” in the Mostellaria;^[2] Cato tells the farmer to pour a mixture into a pitched jar.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to pour into a vessel, to pour together or mix, to stir up, as Ovid's Medea stirring everything with an olive branch, and of voices to mingle.^[2][5] It is to join so as to make one, combine or blend, as Cicero's “it is hard to combine both”, and in Horace proelia cōnfundere, to join battle; it is also to spread over, as Cicero's quality to be spread through the whole speech.^[2][1]

From mixing it came to mean to throw into disorder or confuse, as Cicero's books of Homer, earlier in disorder, that Pisistratus arranged, to ruin by upsetting, as in Lucretius, and to blur or make indistinct, as Lucretius' words blurred by passing through much air.^[2][1] It is to confuse a point, a person or his memory, as in Livy and Columella, and to fail to keep things distinct.^[2] Ancient glossaries render it with Ancient Greek συγχέω (sunkhéō, “to pour together, confound”), misceō and conturbō.^[3] Church Latin glosses it “put to shame, confound, confuse, disturb”.^[6]

Through Anglo-French confoundre it gave English confound about 1300, and English confuse in the 1550s.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a cook mixing sauces.^[2][3][8]
• 234–149 BC – Cato of pouring into a jar.^[2][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of combining and of confused books.^[2][8]
• c. 1300 – English confound.^[7]
• 1550s – English confuse.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To pour (into); to pour together, mix, mingle.^[2][5][1]
2. To combine, unite, blend;^[2][1] proelia cōnfundere, to join battle.^[2]
3. To spread over, diffuse.^[2][1]
4. To throw into disorder, confuse, confound; to ruin.^[2][1][6]
5. To blur, obscure; to perplex; to fail to distinguish.^[2][1]
6. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To put to shame.^[6]

Word family

• confūsāneus
• confūsīcius
• confūsim
• cōnfūsiō
• incōnfūsus
• cōnfūsibilis
• cōnfūsibiliter
• cōnfūsus

Related words

• fundō
• diffundō
• effundō
• circumfundō
• misceō
• English confound
• English confuse

References

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