inflationary

Etymology

It is formed from English inflation + -ary.^[1][2][3] Inflation is from Latin īnflātiō (“a puffing up, flatulence”), from īnflō (“to blow into, puff up”).^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Causing or marked by monetary inflation: Etymonline dates it to 1916,^[2] Dictionary.com to 1915–20, and the OED's and Merriam-Webster's first record is from 1920, in the Glasgow Herald.^[1][4]

Semantic evolution

The adjective followed the economic sense of inflation, an excessive increase in prices or in the money in circulation, recorded from 1821.^[1] In 1981 the physicist A. H. Guth applied it to a model of the universe that went through a brief period of exponential expansion just after the big bang.^[1]

Timeline

• 1916 – causing or marked by inflation of money and prices.^[2]
• 1981 – of a model of the universe with an early period of exponential expansion (astronomy).^[1]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of, relating to, causing or marked by inflation in prices or money: inflationary pressures on rents.^[4][5][1]
2. (astronomy) Of a model of the universe in which it expanded exponentially for a tiny fraction of a second soon after the big bang.^[1]

Word family

• anti-inflationary
• counterinflationary
• noninflationary
• postinflationary
• inflationary spiral

Related words

• inflate
• inflation

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins