tumefy

English

Etymology

From French tuméfier, from Latin tumefaciō, ultimately from tumeō, from Proto-Indo-European *tum-éh₁- (“to be swelling”), stative stem of *tum- (“to swell”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈt(j)uːmɪfaɪ/

Verb

tumefy (third-person singular simple present tumefies, present participle tumefying, simple past and past participle tumefied)

1. (transitive) To cause to swell.
   • 1840, Thomas De Quincey, “Theory of Greek Tragedy”, in Blackwood's Magazine:

     to swell, tumefy, stiffen, not the diction only, but the tenor of the thought

2. (intransitive) To swell; to rise into a tumour.
   • 1732, George Smith, Institutiones Chirurgicæ: or, Principles of Surgery, [...] To which is Annexed, a Chirurgical Dispensatory, [...], London: Printed [by William Bowyer] for Henry Lintot, at the Cross-Keys against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet, →OCLC, page 254:

     […] Lanfrank takes Notice of Tract. 3. Doct. 3. cap. 18. ſaying, "I have ſeen many who being full of Humours, have made an Iſſue under the Knee, before due Purgation had been premis'd; whence, by reaſon of the too great Defluxion of Humours, the Legs tumified, ſo that the cauterized Place corrupted, and a Cancer (or rather cacoethic Ulcer) was thereby made, with which great Difficulty was cur'd."

Derived terms

• tumefaction

Related terms

English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *tewh₂-‎ (0 c, 47 e)

Translations

to cause to swell

• Bulgarian: отичам (bg) (otičam)
• Esperanto: ŝveligi (eo)
• French: tuméfier (fr)
• Greek: προκαλώ (el) (prokaló)
• Latin: tumefaciō