Etymologically
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influx

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈɪnˌflʌks/[1]

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]

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.