conflate

conflate

English

WOTD – 5 May 2008

Etymology

Attested since 1541[1]: borrowed from Latin cōnflātus, from cōnflō (“fuse, melt, or blow together”); cōn (“with, together”) + flō (“blow”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kənˈfleɪt/, /kɒnˈfleɪt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /kənˈfleɪt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪt

Verb

conflate (third-person singular simple present conflates, present participle conflating, simple past and past participle conflated)

1. To bring (things) together and fuse (them) into a single entity.

   Synonyms: fuse, meld

2. To mix together different elements.

   Synonyms: mix, blend, coalesce, commingle, flux, immix, merge, amalgamate

3. (by extension) To fail to properly distinguish or keep separate (things); to mistakenly treat (them) as equivalent.

   Synonyms: confuse, mix up, lump together

   “Bacon was Lord Chancellor of England and the first European to experiment with gunpowder.” — “No, you are conflating Francis Bacon and Roger Bacon.”

Derived terms

• conflatable
• conflation
• deconflate
• deconflation

Translations

to fuse into a single entity

Chinese: Mandarin: 合併／合并 (zh) (hébìng) Czech: sjednotit pf, smíchat pf, propojit pf Danish: sammenføje Dutch: samenvoegen (nl), verbinden (nl) Esperanto: kunfandi Estonian: kokku sulatama Finnish: yhdistää (fi), liittää (fi) French: amalgamer (fr), assembler (fr), fusionner (fr), confondre (fr) German: verbinden (de), vereinigen (de), verschmelzen (de) Hungarian: egyesít (hu) Japanese: 合成する (ja) (gōsē suru) Polish: połączyć (pl) Portuguese: unir (pt), juntar (pt), fundir (pt) Romanian: contopi (ro), amalgama (ro), fuziona (ro) Russian: соединя́ть (ru) (sojedinjátʹ), объединя́ть (ru) (obʺjedinjátʹ) Serbo-Croatian: sjediniti (sh) Spanish: amalgamar (es), unir (es) Swedish: sammanfoga (sv) Turkish: birleştirmek (tr) Ukrainian: поєднувати (pojednuvaty)

to mix together different elements

Chinese: Mandarin: 混合 (zh) (hǔnhé) Esperanto: intermiksi Finnish: sekoittaa (fi), yhdistää (fi), sotkea (fi) Hungarian: összekombinál, összeollóz, egybeolvaszt (hu), összeolvaszt Japanese: 融合する (ja) (yūgō suru) Portuguese: misturar (pt) Romanian: amesteca (ro), amalgama (ro) Swedish: sammanfläta Ukrainian: зливати (zlyvaty), змішувати (zmišuvaty)

to fail to properly distinguish things or keep them separate; mistakenly treat them as equivalent

Catalan: confondre (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 混同 (zh) (hùntóng) Danish: forveksle Esperanto: misdistingi Finnish: sekoittaa (fi), sotkea (fi) French: confondre (fr) German: verwechseln (de) Hungarian: összetéveszt (hu), összekever (hu) Italian: confondere (it) Japanese: 混同する (ja) (kondō suru); ごちゃごちゃにする (gocha-gocha ni suru); ごちゃにする (gocha ni suru); ごちゃ混ぜにする (gochamaze ni suru); 一緒くたにする (isshokuta ni suru); 一括りにする (hitokukuri ni suru) Portuguese: confundir (pt), equiparar (pt) Romanian: confunda (ro) Russian: путать (ru) impf (putatʹ) Spanish: confundir (es) Swedish: förväxla (sv) Ukrainian: плутати impf (plutaty)

Adjective

conflate (not comparable)

1. (biblical criticism) Combining elements from multiple versions of the same text.
   • 1999, Emanuel Tov, The Greek and Hebrew Bible: Collected Essays on the Septuagint:

     Why the redactor created this conflate version, despite its inconsistencies, is a matter of conjecture.

Noun

conflate (plural conflates)

1. (biblical criticism) A conflate text, one which conflates multiple version of a text together.

References

1. Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “conflate”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

• falconet, lactofen

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Latin

Verb

cōnflāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of cōnflō