impassion

English

Etymology

From Italian impassionare. By surface analysis, im- +‎ passion.

Verb

impassion (third-person singular simple present impassions, present participle impassioning, simple past and past participle impassioned)

1. (transitive) make passionate, instill passion in
   • 1912, Arnold Bennett, Your United States‎^[1]:

     Baseball remains a formidable item, yet scarcely capable of balancing the scale against the sports—football, cricket, racing, pelota, bull-fighting—which, in Europe, impassion the common people, and draw most of their champions from the common people.

   • 1924, Herman Melville, chapter 4, in Billy Budd‎^[2], London: Constable & Co.:

     Personal prudence even when dictated by quite other than selfish considerations surely is no special virtue in a military man; while an excessive love of glory, impassioning a less burning impulse, the honest sense of duty, is the first.

Related terms

• impassionate