infer [LME] The early sense recorded for infer is ‘bring about, inflict’ from Latin inferre ‘bring in, bring about’, which in medieval Latin came to mean ‘deduce’. The base elements are in- ‘into’ and ferre ‘bring’. Infer expresses the idea that something in the speaker’s words enables the listener to ‘deduce’ what is meant; imply [LME] from Latin implicare ‘fold in’, expresses the notion that something in the speaker’s words ‘suggests’ a certain meaning.