[‘ /trans./ To blunt, deaden, dull the sensation of; to deprive of sharpness or vigour.']
Pronunciation: Brit. /əbˈtʌnd/, ɒbˈtʌnd, U.S. /ɑbˈtənd/
Forms: ME– *obtund*, 16 *obtunde*.
Etymology: < classical Latin /obtundere/ to beat against, to blunt, deaden, to deafen < /ob-* ob- prefix + /tundere/ tund v. Compare French †/obtundre* (1611 in Cotgrave; earlier in Middle French as *obtondre* (1507)).
Chiefly Med.
/trans./ To blunt, deaden, dull the sensation of; to deprive of sharpness or vigour.
In quot. 1694: spec. to deafen.
/a/1400 tr. Lanfranc /Sci. Cirurgie/ (Ashm.) (1894–1988) 83 Colde þingis whiche..obtunden or casten bach þe scharpnes of þe same vlcus.
1591 /Ripley’s Compound of Alchymy/ Pref. sig. B3, Whose luminous beames obtundeth our speculation.
1620 T. Venner /Via Recta/ viii. 164 Nothing..doth so greatly obtunde and weaken the natiue heate..as a fastidious fulnesse of the stomacke.
1664 H. More /Modest Enq. Myst. Iniquity/ 347 This passage, if there had been any force in the former, does quite obtund it.
1694 P. A. Motteux tr. Rabelais /5th Bk. Wks./ Epist. Lymosin 250 But now I’ll not too many Verbs effund, Nor with our Ills your Auricles obtund.
1710 T. Fuller tr. /Pharmacopœia Extemporanea/ 36 Crayfish, Crabs and Lobsters..obtund the acidity of Vinegar it self.
1750 Johnson /Rambler/ No. 78. ⁋4 No man can at pleasure obtund or invigorate his senses.
a/1836 D. McNicoll /Inq. Stage in /Wks./ (1837) 120 The moral sensibility of the character is..obtunded.
1872 J. S. Cohen /Dis. Throat/ 271 The sense of smell is obtunded.
1908 J. D. Patterson in C. N. Johnson /Text-bk. Operative Dentistry/ xxviii. 460 The next step is to obtund the tissues to be operated on.
1970 /Science/ 4 Dec. 1115/1 Any efficacy of either of these two drug types in obtunding the abstinence syndrome of the other would probably be related to their nonspecific central nervous system depressant effects.
1986 /Federation Proc./ *45* 2151 Pertussis toxin treatment prevents or obtunds the increased influx of Ca2+.
1999 /Canad. Jrnl. Anaesthesia/ *46* 368 Fentanyl..helped to obtund the hypertensive response to intubation.