profuse

This word begins with a splash. Romans had a knack for turning physical actions into moral judgments, and here they made something as simple as pouring become a metaphor for excess: profusus, literally something poured forth in a great gush. That little pro- is the same forward-looking bit you meet in words like propel and proceed, while the pouring half belongs with effuse, diffuse, infuse, and transfuse — all the verbs that make language feel like liquids moving through pipes. English picked it up in the early 1400s, when lavishness was often described in the language of spill and stream, as if money, praise, or tears could be tipped from an overfull jug. So when someone is profuse, picture a cup that should have stopped a long time ago but just keeps pouring over the table.