influx

Etymology

It is borrowed from French influx, recorded in French from 1547, or from Late Latin īnflūxus (“a flowing in”),^[2][3][4][5] from Latin īnfluō (“to flow in”),^[2][6][7] formed from in- (“in”) and fluō (“to flow”).^[2][7][8] Barnhart instead takes it as an English formation from the prefix meaning "in" and flūxus (“a flowing”), the source of flux.^[9] The Latin verb is also the source of influence.^[6][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The act of flowing in, an inflow of a fluid, light, heat or a spiritual influence: 1626, in Francis Bacon's Sylva Sylvarum.^[2][9] The Oxford Dictionary of English dates the word to the late 16th century, when it meant an inflow of liquid, gas or light.^[11][5]

Semantic evolution

At first the word was used of rivers, air, light and spiritual light;^[3] from 1652 it also meant the flowing of a river into another or into the sea, and the mouth of a river.^[2] In the same year it was first applied to a continuous arrival of people or things,^[2] the main sense today.^[12][10] In the 17th century it was also used for influence, first of the stars (after Latin influxus stellarum) and then more generally, but these senses died out by about 1700.^[2][10] Johnson (1755) defined it as the act of flowing into anything.^[13]

Timeline

• 1626 – an inflow of a fluid, light or a spiritual influence; also, the influence of the stars (obsolete).^[2][9]
• 1644 – influence in general (obsolete by 1703).^[2]
• 1652 – the flowing of a river into another river or the sea; a river mouth.^[2]
• 1652 – a continuous arrival of people or things.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The arrival of large numbers of people or things: The festival brings an influx of tourists every summer.^[12][10][2]
2. The act of flowing in; an inflow.^[12][10]
3. The mouth of a stream or river, where it flows into a larger body of water.^[12][10][2]

Related words

• flux
• influence
• fluent
• efflux
• reflux
• afflux

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c 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. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.