inspersion

English

Etymology

Latin inspersio.

Noun

inspersion (countable and uncountable, plural inspersions)

1. (obsolete) The act of sprinkling.
   • [1611?], Homer, “Book XI”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. […], London: […] Nathaniell Butter, →OCLC; republished as The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets, […], new edition, volume I, London: Charles Knight and Co., […], 1843, →OCLC:

     With sweet inspersion of fit balms

     The spelling has been modernized.

   • 1749, [John Cleland], “[Letter the First]”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], volume I, London: […] G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC, page 113:

     Nor was it till after a few enjoyments had numb'd and blunted the sense of the smart, and given me to feel the titillating inspersion of balsamic sweets, drew from me the delicious return, and brought down all my passion, that I arriv'd at excess of pleasure, through excess of pain

References

• “inspersion”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.