[ad. L. conflātiōn-em, n. of action from conflāre: see CONFLATE.]
1. The action of blowing or fusing together; composition or blending of different things into a whole. Also concr., the result of such composition.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 225. The sweetest and best Harmony is, when every Part or Instrument, is not heard by it selfe, but a Conflation of them all.
1832. Austin, Jurispr. (1879), II. 1057. Codification … is resolvable into two parts: 1. a re-expression and arrangement of statute law; 2. an extraction from cases of rationes decidendi … 3. A conflation of both.
1838. Raine, Misc. Biogr. (Surtees), p. ix. The Life of Cuthbert in Capgrave, which is a conflation from various sources.
† 2. ‘A casting or melting of metal.’ Obs.
1730–6. in Bailey (folio).
1755. in Johnson.
3. The combination or fusion of two variant readings of a text into a composite reading. Also concr., a reading that results from such mixture of variants. Cf. CONFLATE ppl. a. 3.
1881. Westcott & Hort, Grk. N. T., Introd. 95. Bold conflations, of various types, are peculiarly frequent in the Ethiopic version.
1890. Margoliouth, Ecclesiasticus, 4, note. The Latin either agrees with the Syriac against the Greek, or else exhibits a conflation of the two renderings.
