Etymologically
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perfundo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [pɛrˈfʊn.doː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [perˈfun.do][1]

Forms

perfundō (present infinitive perfundere, perfect active perfūdī, supine perfūsum); third conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin per- (“through, thoroughly”) + fundō (“to pour”).[2][1][3] De Vaan traces ⟨fundō⟩ to Proto-Italic *χunde/o- and a nasal present Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰu-n-d- (“to pour”), from the root of Ancient Greek χέω (khéō, “to pour”) and Sanskrit जुहोति (juhóti, “pours, sacrifices”).[4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's examples begin with Cicero's Verrines, where Philodamus is drenched with boiling water,[2][5] and Lucretius, whose rising sun floods everything with its light.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to pour through, and above all to pour over, wet or drench; in the passive it is to bathe, as Varro's oxen that drink and bathe in a pond, and of liquids to bathe the body, as Virgil's sweat breaking out over the limbs.[2][5] It is used of rivers flowing through a land, of gilding a roof (Seneca), of light and colour spreading over things, and of sand strewn over fields.[2] Figuratively it is to fill or imbue with a feeling, as Cicero's orator who suffused his hearers' minds with charm rather than broke through them.[2]

Church Latin glosses it “pour over, moisten, anoint; fill with apprehension”.[6] English perfuse (early 15th century) comes from its past participle.[3]

Timeline

  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius of sunlight spreading over things.[2][7]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of a man drenched with boiling water.[2][7]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro of cattle bathing.[2][7]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of gilding roofs.[2][7]
  • early 15th century – English perfuse.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To pour (through).[2]
  2. To pour over, wet, drench, (passive) to bathe.[2][1][5]
  3. (of rivers, the sea) To flow through or over; to coat, overlay; to suffuse (with light, colour).[2]
  4. To strew, cover (with sand or the like).[2]
  5. To fill, imbue (with a feeling).[2][1][6]
  6. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To anoint.[6]

Word family

  • perfūsiō
  • perfūsor

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 k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  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 c 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 d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de