Confound
/kənˈfaʊnd/noun
To confuse or bewilder someone or something; also to frustrate or prove wrong.
Did you know?Its ancestor in Latin, confundere, was also used for mixing liquids and colors, so the word carries the eerie idea of boundaries dissolving into one another.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*gʰewdʰ-
“to pour, spill, or pour out”
Latin
Latin
fundere
“to pour”
Latin
Latin
con- + fundere → confundere
“to pour together; mix; confuse”
Old French
OF
confondre
“to confound, mix up, overthrow”
Middle English
English
confounden
“to confuse, overthrow, ruin”
Modern English
English
confound
“to confuse, surprise, or prove wrong”