suffuse

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster

Arts, Literature, Language Courses, Education

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🗓️ 10 November 2023

⏱️ 2 minutes

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Summary

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 10, 2023 is:

suffuse • \suh-FYOOZ\ • verb

To suffuse something is to spread over it or fill it, either literally or figuratively. The word suffuse is usually encountered in literary contexts.

// Natural sunlight suffused the room as she opened the blinds.

// The novel tells a difficult story, but it is suffused with hope.

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Examples:

"How to work, what to work on, assessing what’s been made. These are the questions that suffuse every artist’s career. They start with nothing, mostly without being asked, and sail into the unknown with a passion to make something." — Margaret Heffernan, The Guardian (London), 23 Apr. 2023

Did you know?

The Latin word suffendere, ancestor to suffuse by way of Latin suffūsus, has various meanings that shed light on our modern word, among them "to pour on or in (as an addition)" and "to fill with a liquid, color, or light that wells up from below." It’s no surprise, then, that suffuse refers to the action of fluid or light spreading over or through something, as when light fills a dark room when you crack open a door. Suffundere is a blend of the prefix sub- ("under" or "beneath") and the verb fundere ("to pour" or "to send forth"). Other English verbs related to fundere continue the theme of pouring or spreading: diffuse ("to pour out and spread freely"), effuse ("to pour or flow out"), transfuse ("to cause to pass from one to another"), and the verb fuse itself when it's used to mean "to meld or join."

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's Merriam-Webster's word of the day for November 10th.
0:11.2	Today's word is suffuse spelled SUFF U.S. E. Sefuse is a verb. To suffuse something is to
0:19.2	spread over it or fill it either literally or figuratively. The word suffuse is usually encountered in
0:26.4	literary contexts. Here's the word used in a sentence from the Guardian by
0:31.3	Margaret Heffernan.
0:33.0	How to work what to work on, assessing what's been made.
0:37.0	These are the questions that suffuse every artist's career.
0:41.0	They start with nothing, mostly about being asked, and sail into the unknown with a passion to make something.
0:48.0	The Latin word sufendere, ancestor to the word sufuse by way of the Latin word suffus has various meanings
0:56.6	that shed light on our modern word among them to pour on or in as an addition and to fill with a liquid color or light
1:06.7	that wells up from below.
1:09.1	It's no surprise then that suffuse refers to the action of fluid or light spreading over or through
1:15.9	something as when light fills a dark room when you crack open a door.
1:20.6	Sufundure is a blend of the prefix, sub meaning under or beneath, and the verb
1:27.3	Fundaree meaning to poor or to send forth. Other English verbs related to Fundere continue the theme of pouring or spreading, like
1:37.6	diffuse meaning to pour out and spread freely, effuse meaning to pour or flow out, trans fuse meaning to cause to pass from
1:47.6	one to another, and the verb fuse itself when it's used to mean to melled or join. With your word of the day I'm
1:55.3	Peter Sokolowski.
2:00.3	Visit Merriam Webster.com today for definitions, word play, and trending word lookups.

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