Etymology Attested since 1541: from Latin cōnflātus, past passive participle of cōnflō (“fuse, kindle, blow together”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix).
1
To combine or mix together.
2
Broadly To fail to properly distinguish or keep separate (things); to mistakenly treat (them) as equivalent.
Near-synonym: confuse
“Bacon was Lord Chancellor of England and the first European to experiment with gunpowder.” — “No, you are conflating Francis Bacon and Roger Bacon.”
1 more example
But as Covid wore on, and all of this not-really-reading took on an ever more breathless quality, it became clear that we were being not confused but conflated, treated as one interchangeable Naomi.2023, Naomi Klein, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World, Penguin, →ISBN, page 39:
3
Broadly To deliberately draw a false equivalence or association, typically in a tacit or implicit manner as propaganda and/or an intentional distortion or misrepresentation of the subject matter.
But in reality, the order simply furthers the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant policies by continuing to conflate immigration issues with criminal ones.2018 June 25, Shan Wu, “The real story behind Trump’s immigration executive order”, in CNN:
But again, this conflates global geographic variation with race, says Alan Goodman, a biological anthropologist at Hampshire College.2020 August 18, “Your big questions about race, answered”, in CNN:
2 more examples
Climate skeptics have conflated the two for years, for example, pointing to cold winter weather as proof that global warming is a hoax, most likely to play on people’s confusion about the two.2020 September 15, Brandon Miller and Judson Jones, “Climate is not weather: Trump continues to get the two conflated”, in CNN:
“We must stop conflating selectivity with excellence. We must stop correlating prestige with privilege,” he said.2022 September 12, Deidre McPhillips, “Critiques mount around popular annual college rankings”, in CNN:
Etymology Attested since 1541: from Latin cōnflātus, past passive participle of cōnflō (“fuse, kindle, blow together”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix).
1
Combining elements from multiple versions of the same text.
Biblical criticism
Why the redactor created this conflate version, despite its inconsistencies, is a matter of conjecture.1999, Emanuel Tov, The Greek and Hebrew Bible: Collected Essays on the Septuagint:
conflate
noun
Etymology Attested since 1541: from Latin cōnflātus, past passive participle of cōnflō (“fuse, kindle, blow together”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix).
1
A conflate text, one which conflates multiple version of a text together.