infusion
/ɪnˈfjuːʒən/noun
Liquid extract produced by soaking material
From Latin infundere (to pour into).
Lineage
The story
Picture a medieval herbalist dropping leaves into a cup and waiting for the water to draw out their flavor: that patient “pouring in” is the physical scene preserved in infusion. The word appears in English around 1400 as Middle English infusioun, arriving through Old French from Latin infusionem, “a pouring in, a watering.” Latin’s infundere could describe liquid entering something, which explains why the same family produced infuse: the modern kitchen, pharmacy, and hospital IV all meet at the same ancient image. In 1650s medical Latin, parenchyma was fancifully imagined as material “poured in beside” to form organs—an astonishing cousin built from the Greek equivalent of pouring. Remember infusion as liquid being invited inward slowly, while decoction takes the impatient route and boils the ingredients.
Modern usage
An ideal, tech-savvy woman on an online dating site; also a boastful copycat, according to Urban Dictionary entries
- Heard in
- online dating slang · internet slang
- See
- Urban Dictionary entries for infusion
Words from the same roots
infundere · Latin, ‘to pour into’
Derivedinfuse, infusion, fundamental, funnel, profuse