impinge

Borrowed from Latin impingō (“dash against, impinge”). Compare impact, derived from the perfect passive participle of impingō.

• IPA^(key): /ɪmˈpɪndʒ/

impinge (third-person singular simple present impinges, present participle impinging, simple past and past participle impinged)

1. (transitive, now rare) To make a physical impact on.

   Synonyms: collide, crash, strike

   • 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Printed by Iohn Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 216894069; The Anatomy of Melancholy. […], 5th corrected and augmented edition, Oxford: Printed [by Robert Young, Miles Flesher, and Leonard Lichfield and William Turner] for Henry Cripps, 1638, OCLC 932915040, partition 1, page 118:

     The ordinary rocks upon which such men do impinge and precipitate themselves, are cards, dice, hawks, and hounds […]

2. (intransitive, figuratively) To interfere with.

   Synonyms: encroach, infringe, trespass

   • 2006 Summer, Keith R. Fisher, “Toward a Basal Tenth Amendment: A Riposte to National Bank Preemption of State Consumer Protection Laws”, in Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, volume 29, page 981-1034:

     It is astonishing that the meaning of a single declarative sentence enshrined in the Bill of Rights has evaded judicial construction establishing, at a minimum, some bedrock level of state sovereignty upon which the federal government can not impinge.

3. (intransitive, figuratively) To have an effect upon, especially a negative one.

   Synonyms: affect, limit, touch, influence, impact

   • 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad:

     “I have tried, as I hinted, to enlist the co-operation of other capitalists, but experience has taught me that any appeal is futile that does not impinge directly upon cupidity. …”

   • 1982, Patrick O' Brien, “European Economic Development: The Contribution of the Periphery”, in The Economic History Review, volume 107, number 2, page 445:

     Except for a restricted range of examples, growth, stagnation, and decay everywhere in Western Europe can be explained mainly by endogenous forces. The 'world economy', such as it was, hardly impinged [on Europe].

   • 2017, Rutger Bregman, chapter 3, in Elizabeth Manton, transl., Utopia for Realists, Kindle edition, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 56:

     Scarcity impinges on your mind. People behave differently when they perceive a thing to be scarce.

• The transitive use is less common, not included in many small dictionaries, and not favored by Garner's Modern American Usage (2009).

• impact

impinge

1. third-person singular present indicative of impingere

• impegni

impinge

1. second-person singular present active imperative of impingō