Italian

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Etymology

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From Vulgar Latin *affundāre, from Latin ad + fundus (bottom). By surface analysis, a- +‎ fondo +‎ -are.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /af.fonˈda.re/
  • Rhymes: -are
  • Hyphenation: af‧fon‧dà‧re

Verb

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affondàre (first-person singular present affóndo, first-person singular past historic affondài, past participle affondàto, auxiliary (transitive) avére or (intransitive) èssere)

  1. (transitive) to sink (to submerge into a liquid; to cause to be submerged into a liquid)
    Synonym: sommergere
  2. (transitive) to sink, to dig, to plunge
    Synonym: immergere
    affondò avidamente i denti nella carnehe greedily sank his teeth in the meat
  3. (transitive, uncommon, literal and figurative) to deepen by digging
    • 1882, Renato Fucini, “Dolci ricordi”, in Le veglie di Neri: paesi e figure della campagna toscana, page 157:
      "Tieni" mi disse, parlando rado ed affondandomi ad ogni parola un solco nell'anima.
      "Here" he said to me, talking sparsely and deepening a scar in my soul with each word.
  4. (intransitive) to sink, to founder [auxiliary essere]
    la nave affondò in pochi minutithe ship sank after a few minutes
  5. (intransitive, figurative) to go broke, to be ruined [auxiliary essere]
  6. (intransitive, figurative) to sink (into chaos, vice, etc.) [auxiliary essere]

Conjugation

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Derived terms

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Further reading

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  • affondare in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Anagrams

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