imbuo

Latin

Etymology

Back-formation from the past participle imbūtus, itself from Proto-Italic *enðūtos, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁en-dʰh₁-u-h₁-tós, an instrumental-based participial derivative of *h₁en (“in”) +‎ *dʰeh₁- (“to do, place”) +‎ *-us +‎ *-tós.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈim.bu.oː/, [ˈɪmbuoː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈim.bu.o/, [ˈimbuo]

Verb

imbuō (present infinitive imbuere, perfect active imbuī, supine imbūtum); third conjugation

1. to wet, moisten, dip

   Synonyms: rigō, perfundō

   Antonyms: siccō, dūrō

   • c. 84 BCE – 54 BCE, Catullus, Carmina 4.13–21:

     Amastri Pontica et Cytōre buxifer,
     tibi haec fuisse et esse cognitissima
     ait phasēlus; ultimā ex orīgine
     tuō stetisse dīcit in cacūmine,
     tuō imbuisse palmulās in aequore,
     et inde tot per impotentia freta
     erum tulisse, laeva sīve dextera
     vocāret aura, sīve utrumque Iuppiter
     simul secundus incidisset in pedem.

     Pontic Amastris and boxwood-bearing Cytorus,
     to you to have been and to be most acquainted
     claims the phaselus; from the first origin
     to have stood on your mountaintop,
     in your water to have dipped the shears,
     and thence over so many powerless waves
     to have taken the master, whether a left- or right-hand
     breeze called, or whichever sheet
     Jupiter came astern at the same time on.

   • 9 CE, Ovid, The Ibis 223–228:

     Prōtinus Eumenidēs lāvēre palūstribus undīs,
          quā cava dē Stygiīs flūxerat unda vadīs,
     pectoraque ūnxērunt Ērebeae felle colubrae
          terque cruentātās increpuēre manūs,
     gutturaque inbuērunt īnfantia lacte canīnō:
          hic prīmus puerī vēnit in ōra cibus.

     Immediately the Furies washed him in the marshy waters,
          where the hollow wave flowed from the ford of the Styx
     and anointed his chest with the venom of a serpent from Erebus
          and thrice clapped their bloodied hands
     and moistened the infant throat with dog milk:
          this food came first into the child's mouth.

2. to fill, tinge, stain, taint, infect, imbue

   Synonyms: impleō, expleō, compleō, cumulō, stīpō

   Antonyms: exhauriō, dēpleō, dēfundō

   • C.E. 4th C., Nonius Marcellus (author), W. M. Lindsay (editor), Dē compendiōsā doctrīnā (1903), page 838:

     Inbuere cōnsuētūdō indūcere extimat, cum sit propriē maculāre vel polluere vel īnficere. Accius Armōrum Iūdiciō: 'Inter quōs saepe et multō imbūtōs sanguine'. Īdem Melanippō: 'Crēditĭs mē amīcī morte inbūtūrum manūs?'

     To imbue is usually taken to mean specifically to stain or soil or tinge. Accius in The Trial of Weapons: 'Amongst them oft too tainted with much blood'. The same in Melanippus: 'You think I'm going to stain my hands with the blood of a friend?'

3. to accustom or impress early, inspire, imbue

   Synonyms: īnspīrō, perfundō

   • c. 45 BCE, Cicero, Tusculan Disputations 5.78:

     Aegyptiōrum mōrem quis ignōrat? quōrum inbūtae mentēs prāvitātis errōribus quamvīs carnificīnam prius subierint quam ībim aut aspidem aut faelem aut canem aut corcodillum violent, quōrum etiamsī inprūdentēs quippiam fēcerint, poenam nūllam recūsent.

     Who doesn't know the custom of the Egyptians? whose minds accustomed to delusions of wrongness would rather undergo as much torture as you want than desecrate the ibis or the asp or the cat or the crocodile, and to whom, even if one inadvertently did something to, he would not refuse any punishment.

4. to do something for the first time, set the example
   • 30 BCE – 16 BCE, Propertius, Elegies 4.10.5–8:

     Imbuis exemplum prīmae tū, Rōmule, palmae
          huius, et exuviō plēnus ab hoste redīs,
     tempore quō portās Caenīnum Acrōna petentem
          victor in ēversum cuspide fundis equum.

     You set the example, Romulus, of the first prize,
          and return loaded with spoils from the enemy,
     at the time when the Caenine Acron going for the gates
          you kill with a spear upon his fallen horse.

5. to instruct, initiate, train to a degree; familiarise

   Synonyms: īnstruō, doceō, discō, ēducō, ērudiō, ēdoceō, magistrō, fingō

   • 20 BCE – 14 BCE, Horace, Epistles 2.2.1–9:

     Flōre, bonō clārōque fidēlis amīce Nerōnī,
     sī quis forte velit puerum tibi vēndere nātum
     Tībure vel Gabiīs, et tēcum sīc agat: 'Hīc et
     candidus et tālōs ā vertice pulcher ad īmōs
     fīet eritque tuus nummōrum mīlibus octō,
     verna ministeriīs ad nūtūs aptus erīlīs,
     litterulīs Graecīs imbutūs, idōneus artī
     cuilibet; argillā quidvīs imitāberis ūdā;
     quīn etiam canet indoctum sed dulce bibentī. […] '

     Florus, faithful friend to the good and famous Tiberius Claudius Nero,
     if someone by chance wanted to sell you a slave born
     at Tibur or Gabii, and dealt with you thus: 'This one
     will become white and beautiful from top to the lowest ankles
     and will be yours for eight thousand sesterces,
     a home-born slave apt for tasks at the master's nod,
     somewhat initiated in Greek learning, fitting for any
     trade; you'll model whatever you will in wet clay;
     moreover, he'll also sing, artlessly but sweetly, to you when you drink. […]

   • c. 102 CE, Tacitus, Dialogus de oratoribus 19.5:

     […] vix in cortīnā quisquam adsistat quīn elementīs studiōrum, etsī nōn instrūctus, at certē imbūtus sit […]

     […] hardly does anyone stand in the circle of hearers who isn't, if not instructed, but surely familiarised with the elements of study […]

Conjugation

Conjugation of imbuō (third conjugation)
indicative		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
active	present	imbuō	imbuis	imbuit	imbuimus	imbuitis	imbuunt
	imperfect	imbuēbam	imbuēbās	imbuēbat	imbuēbāmus	imbuēbātis	imbuēbant
	future	imbuam	imbuēs	imbuet	imbuēmus	imbuētis	imbuent
	perfect	imbuī	imbuistī	imbuit	imbuimus	imbuistis	imbuērunt, imbuēre
	pluperfect	imbueram	imbuerās	imbuerat	imbuerāmus	imbuerātis	imbuerant
	future perfect	imbuerō	imbueris	imbuerit	imbuerimus	imbueritis	imbuerint
passive	present	imbuor	imbueris, imbuere	imbuitur	imbuimur	imbuiminī	imbuuntur
	imperfect	imbuēbar	imbuēbāris, imbuēbāre	imbuēbātur	imbuēbāmur	imbuēbāminī	imbuēbantur
	future	imbuar	imbuēris, imbuēre	imbuētur	imbuēmur	imbuēminī	imbuentur
	perfect	imbūtus + present active indicative of sum
	pluperfect	imbūtus + imperfect active indicative of sum
	future perfect	imbūtus + future active indicative of sum
subjunctive		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
active	present	imbuam	imbuās	imbuat	imbuāmus	imbuātis	imbuant
	imperfect	imbuerem	imbuerēs	imbueret	imbuerēmus	imbuerētis	imbuerent
	perfect	imbuerim	imbuerīs	imbuerit	imbuerīmus	imbuerītis	imbuerint
	pluperfect	imbuissem	imbuissēs	imbuisset	imbuissēmus	imbuissētis	imbuissent
passive	present	imbuar	imbuāris, imbuāre	imbuātur	imbuāmur	imbuāminī	imbuantur
	imperfect	imbuerer	imbuerēris, imbuerēre	imbuerētur	imbuerēmur	imbuerēminī	imbuerentur
	perfect	imbūtus + present active subjunctive of sum
	pluperfect	imbūtus + imperfect active subjunctive of sum
imperative		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
active	present	—	imbue	—	—	imbuite	—
	future	—	imbuitō	imbuitō	—	imbuitōte	imbuuntō
passive	present	—	imbuere	—	—	imbuiminī	—
	future	—	imbuitor	imbuitor	—	—	imbuuntor
non-finite forms		active			passive
		present	perfect	future	present	perfect	future
infinitives		imbuere	imbuisse	imbūtūrum esse	imbuī	imbūtum esse	imbūtum īrī
participles		imbuēns	—	imbūtūrus	—	imbūtus	imbuendus
verbal nouns		gerund				supine
		genitive	dative	accusative	ablative	accusative	ablative
		imbuendī	imbuendō	imbuendum	imbuendō	imbūtum	imbūtū

Descendants

• Catalan: imbuir
• English: imbue
• Galician: imbuír
• Portuguese: imbuir
• Spanish: imbuir

Further reading

• “imbuo”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “imbuo”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• imbuo in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to be imbibing false opinions: opinionibus falsis imbui
    
  • to receive the first elements of a liberal education: primis litterarum elementis imbui
    
  • to inspire with religious feeling, with the fear of God: imbuere (vid. sect. VII. 7, note imbuere...) pectora religione
    

Portuguese

Verb

imbuo

1. first-person singular present indicative of imbuir