Etymology

imbrue

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Today it means: To stain [with in or with ‘blood, slaughter, etc.’]. Full definition →

Middle English embrewen ← Old French *embrever ← Vulgar Latin imbiberāre
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The story

  1. Vulgar Latin · derived fromimbiberāre
  2. Old French · derived from*embrever
  3. Middle English · inherited fromembrewen
  4. English todayimbrue

From Middle English embrewen, from Old French *embrever (whence Middle French embreuver), metathetic variant of embevrer (“to imbibe, steep, penetrate, soak”) (with same stem variation found in French abreuver and beuverie), from Vulgar Latin imbiberāre.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.