[f. CONFOUND + -ER: prob. going back to an AF. confondour = OF. confondeur.] One who confounds: a. One who ruins, destroys, overthrows, spoils, discomfits, etc.
1401. Pol. Poems (1859), II. 45. Thou seist we ben confounders of prelates and of lordes.
1515. Barclay, Egloges, i. (1570), A vj/2. Of Saint Peters, or Christes patrimony, Nowe fewe be founders, but confounders many.
1632. Massinger & Field, Fatal Dowry, IV. i. N. Tell you? Why, sir, are you my confessor? R. I will be your confounder, if you do not. [Draws a dagger.]
1670. Eachard, Cont. Clergy, 18. What a confounder of heresies.
1847. De Quincey, Secr. Societies, Wks. VI. 247. To strive after a conquest over Time the conqueror, to confound the grim confounder.
b. One who causes confusion or disorder, who confuses distinctions, etc.
1739. R. Bull, trans. Dedekindus’ Grobianus, 125. Not Founder, yet Confounder of the Feast.
1791–1823. D’Israeli, Cur. Lit. (1858), III. 73. This confounder of words was himself confounded by twelve answers by non-jurors.
