v. Forms: 5–6 co(m)myx, -ix(e, 6– commix. [The pa. pple. commixt, comyxt, is found in 15th c. (along with the sb. commixtion, commixion); the present stem commix appears a good deal later. As the same relative order is found in the case of admixt, admix, mixt, mix (the last being the latest of all), the inference is that the L. pples. commixt-us, admixt-us, mixt-us were first adopted as commixt, admixt, mixt, and that the final -t was then taken to be the native ppl. ending, as in kis-t (cust), and commix, etc., thus assumed as the stem. See more fully s.v. MIX.]
1. trans. To mix or mingle together; to blend. Now arch. or poet.
c. 1420. Pallad. on Husb., I. 567. Figges grounde Comyxt with flour.
1471. Ripley, Comp. Alch., V. iv., in Ashm. (1652), 149. Elements comyxt and wysely coequat.
1570. Dee, Math. Pref., 9. The Quantities of two thinges Commixt.
1572. Bossewell, Armorie, II. 32. Cotes commixt with two of the honorable Ordinaries.
1607. Topsell, Serpents (1653), 615. Commixe the ashes of a Serpent with … the seeds of Fenugreek.
1610. Barrough, Meth. Physick, III. v. (1639), 106. You may commix with the said things verjuyce.
1703. Art & Myst. Vintners & Wine-Coopers, 12. Beat them till they be throughly commix’d.
1709. Hearne, Collect., 5 Dec. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), II. 321. Tin and lead commixt.
1772. Jackson, Isinglass, in Phil. Trans., LXIII. 6. Commixing three spoonfuls with a gallon of malt liquor.
1855. Singleton, Virgil, I. 178. Gore with foam commixed.
b. of things immaterial.
1596. Edward III., IV. iii. 54. Profit must with honour be commix’d.
1601. Cornwallyes, Ess., II. xxxi. (1631), 56. This so sweetly commixeth her defects with those thoughts of liking.
1665. J. Webb, Stone-Heng (1725), 219. They commixt set Forms … in one and the same Temple.
1674. Playford, Skill Mus., I. 59. This Mood that is so commixt with fancy and airy reports.
1809–10. Coleridge, Friend (1818), I. 134. He will confound and commix all things spiritual and temporal.
1859. Fonblanque, Life & Labours (1874), 537. The squeaking and grunting commixed of a herd of swine.
† c. of persons. Obs.
1621. Ainsworth, Annot. Pentat., Deut. xxiii. 8. They … might enter into the congregation and bee commixed with them.
1659. Evelyn, Misc. Writ. (1805), 117. Lest … a certain impure … rabble enter, and commix themselves with our citizens.
a. 1688. Bunyan, Confess. Faith, Wks. 62. The sons of God commixing themselves with the daughters of men.
2. To intermix, mix up; to intersperse.
1592. No-body & Some-b. (1878), 299. We will not have a Clawbacks hand comixt With such heroick peeres.
1847. H. Miller, First Impr., vi. (1857), 102. With these [fields] are commixed innumerable cottages.
3. intr. (for refl.)
1519. Four Elements, in Hazl., Dodsley, I. 11. These elements … commix together daily.
1611. Shaks., Cymb., IV. ii. 55. The Smile, mocking the Sigh, that it would flye From so diuine a Temple, to commix With windes.
1665. Manley, Grotius’ Low-C. Warres, 960. Such as through greediness of booty, drew upon them ruine by commixing with the burning Ship.
1675. Penn, Eng. Pres. Interest Discov., 52. They will commix as Iron and Clay.
1776. G. Campbell, Philos. Rhetoric, I. 252. So far is this pleasure from commixing with the pathos.
1845. Clough, Early Poems, xiv. 9. Oh, with mine commixing I thy breath of life shall feel.
† 4. intr. To copulate. Obs.
1610. Healey, St. Aug. Citie of God, 561. The women with whome they [Devills] comixe.
1661. Rowley, Thrac. Wonder, IV. i. Curses the man she did commix withal.
