fusion
/ˈfjuːʒən/noun
The joining or blending of separate things
From Latin fus- / fūsiō (Pouring out).
Lineage
The story
Picture a Roman substance pouring from one vessel into another: Latin fūsiō named that outpouring, and the same family supplied the idea of melting. English encountered fusion through Middle French, with the word first appearing around 1555 in a translation by Richard Eden. For centuries it chiefly meant heat doing its work on metal; only later did it become a grand word for things joining forces, from political parties to atoms and jazz musicians. Nuclear fusion, recorded in this sense by 1947, gives the old image its most spectacular setting: tiny nuclei pouring their identities together while releasing enormous energy. Remember fusion as “pouring until separate things become one”—a vocabulary image that connects a molten workshop to the sun.
Modern usage
A tactic for combining weak gems into a stronger one
- Heard in
- gaming