- confound
- late 13c., "discomfit, abash, confuse," from Anglo-Fr. confoundre, from O.Fr. confondre (12c.), from L. confundere "to confuse," lit. "to pour together, mix, mingle," from com- "together" + fundere "to pour" (see found (2)). The figurative sense of "confuse, fail to distinguish, mix up" emerged in Latin, passed into French and thence into M.E., where it is mostly found in Scripture; the sense of "destroy utterly" is recorded in English from c.1300. The L. pp. confusus, meanwhile, became confused (q.v.).