combust

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Latin combustus

Middle French combustbor.

English combust

From Middle English combust (“burnt”), from Middle French combust, from Latin combustus, the perfect passive participle of Latin combūrere (“to burn up, to burn away”, transitive), whence also English combure.

The verb was originally transitive.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kəmˈbʌst/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌst

Verb

combust (third-person singular simple present combusts, present participle combusting, simple past and past participle combusted)

1. (transitive, dated) To burn up, to burn away, to consume with fire.

   Synonyms: combure; see also Thesaurus:incinerate

   • 1662, Oriatrike, or, Physick Refined, page 183:

     But if it be combuſted or burnt, it leaveth very much fixed Salt in its own aſhes.

   • 1895, Steel Works Analysis, page 16:

     […] by combusting the steel in drillings in pure oxygen […]

   • 1898, Comic History of Greece, page 194:

     […] and the latter built bonfires and combusted the royal effigy in the uncommunicative confines of their rearward premises.

   • 1968, Biological Effects of Transmutation‎^[1], page 32:

     […] and combusted the paper in a closed flask in an O₂ atmosphere (see Fig. 2).

2. (intransitive) To burn, to be consumed by fire; to catch fire.

   Synonyms: go up; see also Thesaurus:burn, Thesaurus:catch fire

   Hyponyms: deflagrate, detonate

   • 2014, Adelais Selwyn, Eadric, volume 1:

     Brom swore after that he spoke only the truth, the truth that as he sat by my side praying for my soul, my body had combusted into flame, the fire rapidly engulfing my entire being.

   1. (figuratively) To erupt with enthusiasm or boisterousness.
      • 2012, Oliver Burkeman, The Antidote, Happiness for People who Can't Stand Positive Thinking, →ISBN:

        The audience combusts.

Derived terms

• combuster
• spontaneously combust

Translations

burn up, burn away, consume with fire — see also incinerate

• French: comburer (fr)

  Middle French: comburir

• German: verbrennen (de)
• Latin: combūrō

burn, be consumed by fire; catch fire — see also burn,‎ catch fire

• Assamese: জলা (zola), জ্বলা (zola)
• Bulgarian: запалвам (bg) (zapalvam), изгарям (bg) (izgarjam)
• Finnish: palaa (fi), syttyä (fi)
• German: verbrennen (de), in Flammen aufgehen (de)
• Māori: ngingiha, ngiha
• Persian: آتش گرفتن (fa) (âteš gereftan), بسوزم (besuzan)
• Polish: zapłonąć pf, zapalić się pf
• Spanish: combustionar

Adjective

combust (comparative more combust, superlative most combust)

1. (obsolete) Burnt.
2. (astrology) In close conjunction with the sun (so that its astrological influence is "burnt up"), sometimes specified to be within 8 degrees 30'.
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 1, section 3, member 1, subsection 3:

     Guianerius had a patient could make Latin verses when the moon was combust, otherwise illiterate.

   • 1644, John Milton, Areopagitica; a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England, London: [s.n.], →OCLC:

     Who can discern those planets that are oft Combust, and those stars of brightest magnitude that rise and set with the Sun, untill the opposite motion of their orbs bring them to such a place in the firmament, where they may be seen evning or morning.

Translations

burnt

• French:

  Middle French: combust, bruslé

• Latin: combustus

Noun

combust

1. (obsolete) That which undergoes burning.

Related terms

• combure
• comburent
• combustibility
• combustible
• combustion
• combustive
• combustor
• incombustibility
• incombustible
• noncombustible
• uncombustible

Middle French

Etymology

From Latin combustus, perfect passive participle of combūrere.

Cognate with Italian combusto, Portuguese combusto, Spanish combusto.

Participle

combust m (feminine singular combuste, masculine plural combustz, feminine plural combustes)

1. past participle of comburir (“to burn up, to burn away”)
   • 1361, Pèlerin de Prusse, Elections universelles des douze maisons, folio 53:

     [...] car tant comme la cantité du rais du planete se touche avecques les rais du Soleil, il est appellé combust

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1554, Le Guidon en françois, page 350:

     Außi ſe garde de choſes frittes & rosties combustes & melancholiques & vaporeuſes, de luxure & de toute chaleur exceßiue, & de froidure exceßiue, & tienne le ventre laſche : [...]

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1558, L’introduction au jugement des astres, page 37:

     [...] & dirons que quand vne planette eſt cachée ſous les rayons du Soleil, tellement que ne la pouuons voir, elle eſt combuſte & bruslée: & eſt touſiours appelée cõbuſte, iuſques elle ait laiſſé le corps du Soleil de quinze degrés, mais principalement de douze.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Descendants

• → English: combust