instill means to cause a quality to become part of someone's nature.
instill is pronounced /ɪnˈstɪl/.
Why “instill” is a great word
To introduce or implant a quality, idea, or feeling gradually and persistently into someone's mind or nature. From the Latin instillāre, from in- ("into") + stillāre ("to drip, drop"), first recorded in English use in the early 15th century. Unlike "inculcate" (which pounds a lesson in through repetition and dogma) or "implant" (which suggests a sudden, surgical permanence), to instill is to work with the quiet patience of water on stone. It is the slow staining of twilight into a child’s consciousness that a room can be frightening, the daily repetition that makes honesty a reflex rather than a rule, and the accumulated witness of small kindnesses that finally shapes a character—the understanding that the deepest changes arrive not by conquest, but by seepage.
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin instillō.
verb
- To cause a quality to become part of someone's nature.e.g.“It is important to instill discipline in a child at an early age.”
- To pour in (medicine, for example) drop by drop.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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