Other forms: confounding, confounded, confounds
To confound is to puzzle somebody, or to prove them wrong. Confound the experts, confounded by it, confound expectations.
Confound expectations is the fixed phrase, and it is admiring — the thing did better than anybody predicted. The puzzling sense is slightly formal. In statistics, a confounding variable is one that affects both things being compared and so ruins the conclusion, which is among the most important ideas in study design. Note confounded, once used as a mild curse.
1verbconfoundTo puzzle somebody, or to prove them wrong.
“The team's surprise win confounded the experts who had predicted a heavy defeat.”
2verbdistortTo distort a comparison, in statistics.
“Age can confound the results, since older patients are both sicker and more likely to take the drug.”
confound is a confusing or overturning.
Latin confundere means to pour together — con plus fundere, to pour. Confuse, fuse and refund come from the same pouring, so to confound is to mix things up.
Proto-Indo-European
*ǵʰewd-
Latin
cōnfundō — to mingle, mix together
Old French
confondre
Anglo-Norman
cunfundre
Middle English
confounden — destroy, ruin, perplex
English, today
confound
From Middle English confounden (“destroy, ruin, perplex”), from Anglo-Norman cunfundre and Old French confondre, from Latin cōnfundō (“to mingle, mix together”). Related to found (“to melt (metals in a foundry)”) (but not to found (“to start”), nor to find) and to fusion.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Sharper Verbs