transfundo

Forms

trānsfundō (present infinitive trānsfundere, perfect active trānsfūdī, supine trānsfūsum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin trāns- (“across”) + fundō¹ (“to pour”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces fundō¹ to Proto-Italic *χund- and Proto-Indo-European *ǵhu-n-d- (“to pour”).^[4] Cognate with Ancient Greek χέω (khéō, “to pour”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first citation is Cato's work on farming, telling the reader to pour water into another jar: transfundito in alterum dolium.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It is to pour from one vessel into another, to decant:^[2][6] Columella pours water into other vessels and Pliny the Elder molten sand into other furnaces, and Lucan uses it poetically of placing the ashes of the dead in an urn.^[6] Celsus has the passive of blood passing into the veins.^[2] Figuratively it is to transfer affection or feelings from one person to another: Cicero has someone say he had cast off all his love for an actress and transferred it to this woman.^[2] In law it is to transfer and merge something into something else, or to pass rights to another, as in Ulpian.^[2] In Church Latin it is to pour, transfer or transfuse.^[7] English transfuse comes from its participle trānsfūsus in the early 15th century.^[3]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato, of pouring into another jar.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of transferring love.^[2][5]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus, of blood passing into veins.^[2][5]
• early 15th century – English transfuse.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To pour from one vessel into another, decant.^[2][6][1]
2. To transfuse; in the passive, to pass into.^[2][1]
3. To transfer (affection or feelings) to another.^[2][7]
4. (law) To transfer and merge; to pass (rights) to another.^[2]

Word family

• trānsfūsiō

Related words

• fundō¹
• cōnfundō
• effundō
• English transfuse

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. ^ a b 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 d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson