confuto

Forms

cōnfūtō (present infinitive cōnfūtāre, perfect active cōnfūtāvī, supine cōnfūtātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin con- + *fūtō, a compound of the same lost verb as refūtō.^[2][1][3] De Vaan sets up a base ⟨-fūtāre⟩ “to strike” and, with a query, a Proto-Italic root *fūt-.^[3] Its meaning invites comparison with the Germanic verb for “to strike”, Proto-Germanic *bautan-, seen in Old English bēatan (“to beat”) and Old High German bōzzan (“to strike”), but the dentals do not match; a root Proto-Indo-European *bʰu(H)- (“to hit”) with different enlargements in the two branches is possible but, he finds, unattractive, and he also considers a substrate root meaning “strike”.^[3] Etymonline likewise starts from a verb “to beat”, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *bʰau- (“to strike”).^[4] Lewis & Short still took the base as an intensive of foveō.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan's first author is Plautus,^[3] where a character boasts that he would have silenced those who now blame him: istos qui nunc me culpant confutaverim (Truculentus 349).^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

The literal sense was to keep a boiling pot from boiling over by stirring it: in a fragment of Titinius the cook, when the great cauldron boils, paulā confutat truā, checks it with a ladle.^[2][5][7] From this came “to hold down, check”: Cato speaks of something that might check Rome's prosperity, and Cicero of a man who subdues the worst pains by remembering his discoveries.^[2][7][6]

The most frequent use was of argument: to put an opponent to silence, convict him, and then to disprove a statement or argument,^[2][5][7] as when Cicero sets out to refute the Stoics' arguments.^[6] Ecclesiastical Latin kept the senses “confute, check, silence”,^[8] and English borrowed the word in the 1520s through French.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of silencing critics.^[2][9]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of checking good fortune.^[2][7][9]
• end of 2nd/beginning of 1st century BC – Titinius uses it of a cook stirring a boiling cauldron.^[2][9]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it for refuting arguments.^[6][9]
• 1520s – Borrowed into English as confute.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To keep a boiling liquid from boiling over.^[2][5][7]
2. To check, restrain, hold down.^[2][7][6]
3. To put to silence, abash (especially an accuser); to convict.^[2][5]
4. To disprove, refute a statement or argument.^[2][6][8]

Word family

• cōnfūtātiō
• cōnfūtātor

Related words

• refūtō
• English confute

Usage notes

Georges and Gaffiot list a second, archaic cōnfŭtō “to be often, happen often”, a frequentative of cōnfuō, known only from Cato as reported by Festus.^[7][6][10] Döderlein distinguishes it from refūtō: the one who refutat defends himself against arguments brought against him, the one who confutat goes on the attack.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
10. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
11. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper