interfundo

Forms

interfundō (present infinitive interfundere, perfect active interfūdī, supine interfūsum); third conjugation^[2][3][4] The perfect participle interfūsus is by far the commonest form.^[5][6]

Etymology

It is from Latin inter- + fundō¹ (“to pour”), “to pour between”.^[1][5][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its earliest use is in Virgil's Georgics, in noviēns Styx interfūsa, the Styx flowing nine times between,^[5][3] a line he repeats in the Aeneid.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It was used mostly in the passive and the participle, of water lying or flowing between lands: Horace has the seas poured between the shining Cyclades,^[3][7] and Seneca, Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger use it of seas and the ocean that divide.^[5] By extension it meant spread here and there: Virgil describes Dido maculīs interfūsa genās, her cheeks flecked with spots,^[6][3] and Ammianus uses it of spots.^[3] Statius has nox interfūsa, an intervening night.^[2][3]

The active, “to pour between, sprinkle among”, appears in Avienus.^[2][8] Orosius uses it of a wall bound with bitumen poured into it,^[5] and Ambrose figuratively of a flood of worldly luxury.^[5] Medieval writers used the participle of the Britons cut off by the ocean and of black scattered among white.^[9]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses interfūsa of the Styx and of Dido's cheeks.^[5][3][10]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of the seas among the Cyclades.^[3][7][10]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of the ocean.^[2][5][10]
• mid 4th century AD – Avienus uses the active interfundō.^[2][8][10]
• 417/418 AD – Orosius uses it of bitumen poured into a wall.^[5][10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To pour between, sprinkle among.^[2][3][8]
2. (passive) To flow or lie between, intervene (of rivers, seas, night).^[2][3][7]
3. (participle) Spread here and there, suffused.^[6][3]

Word family

• interfūsiō

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
10. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de