impinge
See also: împinge
English
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin impingō (“dash against, impinge”). Compare impact, derived from the perfect passive participle of impingō.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ɪmˈpɪnd͡ʒ/
Audio (Southern England) (file) - Rhymes: -ɪndʒ
Verb
impinge (third-person singular simple present impinges, present participle impinging, simple past and past participle impinged)
- (transitive, now rare) To make a physical impact on.
- Loud noise can impinge on the eardrum, causing temporary hearing damage.
- Synonyms: collide, crash, strike
- 1638, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy. […], 5th edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed [by Robert Young, Miles Flesher, and Leonard Lichfield and William Turner] for Henry Cripps, OCLC 932915040, partition 1, page 118:
- The ordinary rocks upon which such men do impinge and precipitate themselves, are cards, dice, hawks, and hounds […]
- (intransitive, figuratively) To interfere with.
- Synonyms: encroach, infringe, trespass
- 2006 Summer, Keith R. Fisher, “Toward a Basal Tenth Amendment: A Riposte to National Bank Preemption of State Consumer Protection Laws”, in Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, volume 29, page 981-1034:
- It is astonishing that the meaning of a single declarative sentence enshrined in the Bill of Rights has evaded judicial construction establishing, at a minimum, some bedrock level of state sovereignty upon which the federal government can not impinge.
- (intransitive, figuratively) To have an effect upon, especially a negative one.
- Synonyms: affect, limit, touch, influence, impact
- 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad:
- “I have tried, as I hinted, to enlist the co-operation of other capitalists, but experience has taught me that any appeal is futile that does not impinge directly upon cupidity. […]”
- 1971, George Steiner, “In a Post-Culture”, in In Bluebeard's Castle:
- Nothing in the next-door world of Dachau impinged on the great winter cycle of Beethoven chamber music played in Munich.
- 1982, Patrick O' Brien, “European Economic Development: The Contribution of the Periphery”, in The Economic History Review, volume 107, number 2, page 445:
- Except for a restricted range of examples, growth, stagnation, and decay everywhere in Western Europe can be explained mainly by endogenous forces. The 'world economy', such as it was, hardly impinged [on Europe].
- 2017, Rutger Bregman, chapter 3, in Elizabeth Manton, transl., Utopia for Realists, Kindle edition, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 56:
- Scarcity impinges on your mind. People behave differently when they perceive a thing to be scarce.
Usage notes
- The transitive use is less common, not included in many small dictionaries, and not favored by Garner's Modern American Usage (2009).
Derived terms
- impingement
- impingent
- impinger
Related terms
- impact
Translations
to make a physical impact on to collide, to crash (upon)
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to interfere with
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to have a (negative) effect upon; to limit
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Italian
Verb
impinge
- third-person singular present indicative of impingere
Anagrams
- impegni
Latin
Verb
impinge
- second-person singular present active imperative of impingō