Etymologically
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fluid

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈfluːɪd/ (UK); /ˈflu.ɪd/ (US)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French fluide or directly borrowed from Latin fluidus (“flowing, moist”),[2][3][4] from fluere (“to flow”) (see fluent).[2][3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Liquid, capable of flowing: probably before 1425, in a translation of Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie;[2][3] the OED's first example is from 1603.[6]

Semantic evolution

Figuratively, not fixed or rigid, of non-material things, it is from the 1640s, 1642 in the OED.[3][6] Of speech, flowing easily, it is from 1691.[6] The noun, a substance whose particles move freely, a liquid or gas, is from 1661, in Robert Boyle's treatise on air.[2][3][6] A liquid of the body or a plant is from 1704.[6] In older physics, electricity and magnetism were thought of as subtle fluids (1750).[6] Fluidity is from 1603, in Florio's Montaigne.[2]

Timeline

  • before 1425 – flowing, liquid.[2]
  • 1603 – fluidity.[2]
  • 1642 – not rigid, figuratively.[6]
  • 1661 – the noun, in Boyle.[2][6]
  • 1704 – a body fluid.[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A substance, such as a liquid or gas, that flows and takes the shape of its container.

Adjective

  1. Able to flow easily; not solid.
  2. Smooth and graceful: fluid movements.
  3. Not fixed; likely to change: a fluid situation.

Word family

  • fluidity
  • fluidly
  • fluidness
  • fluidal
  • fluidally
  • fluidlike
  • superfluid
  • nonfluid
  • fluctuate
  • fluctuation
  • fluency
  • fluent
  • flux
  • fluidic
  • fluidics
  • fluidize
  • semifluid
  • influence
  • superfluous

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press