Etymology: < classical Latin consūmere to destroy, wear away, to kill, (in legal use) to annul, extinguish (a right, agreement, etc.), to wear down, exhaust, to eat, devour, to take (a medicine), to use up, expend, to swallow up, merge, to spend (money or resources), to spend (time), to waste, squander < con- con- prefix + sūmere to take up (see sumpsimus n.). Compare Anglo-Norman and Middle French, French consumer to destroy, to wear away, to exhaust (first half of the 12th cent. in Old French, chiefly with reference to passion or grief exhausting a person), to pine (early 15th cent. or earlier in Anglo-Norman, used reflexively), to use up (food or drink) (first half of the 15th cent. or earlier in an apparently isolated attestation, subsequently from 1538; obsolete in this sense after late 18th cent., the usual word in this sense now being consommer : see discussion at consume v.²), to waste, squander (time, property, etc.) (1448), (of fire) to burn up, reduce to ashes (1546; compare Old French consumir in same sense (12th cent., only in biblical texts)), (of an illness) to wear (a person) down slowly (1690), and also Old Occitan consumar, consumir (both 13th cent.), Catalan consumir (14th cent.), Spanish consumir (first half of the 13th cent.), Portuguese consumir (13th cent.), Italian consumare (a1250).In past participle forms consumpt , consumpte after the Latin past participle form consumptus. Compare also consumpt adj.

Etymology: Apparently < Middle French (rare) consumer to accomplish, to bring to perfection, to complete (apparently first attested later in this form, 16th cent., although compare Middle French consomes (past participle, plural) ‘accomplished’ (c1370)), variant (see below) of Middle French consummer , Middle French, French consommer to accomplish, to bring to perfection, to complete (12th cent. in Old French) < classical Latin consummāre consummate v. Compare Spanish consumar (second half of the 13th cent.), Italian consumare (1294). Compare later consomme v., an apparently isolated borrowing of the dominant French form, and consummate v., a later borrowing directly < Latin.The normal French descendant of classical Latin consummāre was Anglo-Norman and Middle French consummer , Middle French, French consommer . Spellings of this French verb with single medial -m- are attested sporadically in the late 14th cent. and again in the 16th cent., and reflect the widespread confusion of the French descendants of classical Latin consūmere consume v.¹ and consummāre consummate v. respectively. Similarly, spellings with double medial -mm- of the etymologically distinct Anglo-Norman and Middle French, French consumer consume v.¹ are frequent from an early date (they first occur in the early 12th cent. in Anglo-Norman in the Oxford Psalter). Semantic association of the two verbs is found already in post-classical Latin, where consummāre is frequently attested in senses which in classical Latin were covered by consūmere: ‘to destroy (a person)’, ‘to spend (money)’ (both Vulgate), ‘to kill’ (4th cent.), ‘to die, to perish’ (a420, used passively). Moreover, this usage was reinforced by the frequent occurrence of consummāre in theological contexts with reference to the end of the world, which according to Christian belief was also its ultimate perfection. It was thus easy for the French reflex of classical Latin consūmere to come to be spelt as if derived < consummāre. In the 16th and 17th centuries, French consumer and consommer were often used interchangeably. Subsequently they were again differentiated by normative grammarians and dictionaries (beginning in the mid 17th cent.), and the differentiation was essentially complete by the early 18th cent., although it was only partly based on etymological criteria: consumer now realizes senses with negative connotations such as ‘to destroy (especially by fire)’, ‘to waste’, while consommer now realizes not only the senses etymologically deriving < classical Latin consummāre (e.g. ‘to accomplish, to complete’, ‘to consummate (a marriage)’), but also other senses which were realized by consūmere in classical Latin, e.g. ‘to use up’, ‘to eat or drink (food)’ (early 15th cent. in Middle French in an apparently isolated attestation, subsequently from 1580). See further Französisches etymol. Wörterbuch at consummare and Trésor de la langue française at consommer.