afluencia

Forms

afluencia f (plural afluencias)^[1] Old Spanish texts of the 14th and 15th centuries write both afluencia and affluencia, and also afluençia with ⟨ç⟩.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin affluentia (“a flowing; abundance”), a learned word.^[4][1][5] Corominas lists it among the learned derivatives of fluir, with a first record of 1515.^[6][7]

The Latin noun is formed from affluēns (“flowing, abounding”), the present participle of affluō (“to flow towards”), a compound of ad- (“to”) and fluō (“to flow”).^[8][1][9] Wiktionary traces the simple verb to Proto-Indo-European *bʰlewH- (“to overflow”).^[1] De Vaan explains its perfect and the noun flūctus as later analogical formations.^[10]

The same Latin word was borrowed as Catalan afluència, Portuguese afluência, French affluence and Italian affluenza.^[11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DEMel's earliest record is affluencia in a text of Heredia from the second half of the 14th century, and afluencia appears in Bibles and other texts of about 1400.^[2] In the Pentateuch of the Escorial Bible I-j-4 (c. 1400) the word renders the “abundance” of the seas: ca afluencia delas mares mamaran “for they shall suck the abundance of the seas”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word meant both a plentiful flow of water and, figuratively, abundance of goods.^[13][3] The Academy's first dictionary (1726) gave the flow of a liquid as a sense “not much used” and the figurative “abundance of words, ideas or riches” as the main one.^[14] In 1770 the sense of abundance was marked as old, and fluency of speech appeared as a sense of its own.^[15] Domínguez added a crowd of people and the medical flow of humours to an organ in 1846.^[16] The Academy's 1884 edition first defined it as “the action and effect of afluir”, the order kept by the DLE.^[17][4]

Today the commonest use is for the arrival of many people or things at one place: tourists, traffic, the public at an event.^[18][19] In the Americas it is recorded from 1650 in Michoacán, for abundance, and in 1690 in Nuevo León for the volume of water of the Río Bravo.^[20]

Timeline

• 1350–1400 – affluencia in a text of Heredia, the DEMel's first record.^[2]
• c. 1400 – afluencia in the Escorial Bible I-j-4 and other texts.^[2][3]
• 1427–1428 – Enrique de Villena glosses superhabundançia with afluençia in his Aeneid.^[3]
• 1515 – the first record in Corominas, in Fernández de Villegas.^[6][7]
• 1650 – first record from the Americas, in Michoacán.^[20]
• 1726 – Autoridades has the senses “flow of a liquid” and “abundance of words or riches”.^[14]
• 1770 – the Academy adds “fluency of speech” as a separate sense.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology, Latin affluentia, and the sense “action and effect of flowing in”.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. The action of flowing in; the arrival of many people or things at one place, an influx: La afluencia de visitantes desbordó el museo.^[4][18][1]
2. abundance, a great quantity.^[4][19]
3. Fluency, facundia: ease and abundance of words in speaking.^[4][19]

Related words

• afluente
• afluir
• aflujo
• fluir
• Latin affluentia

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. afluencia
3. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. afluencia
4. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. afluencia
5. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 27
6. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 921
7. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. fluir
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. afluente
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Barcia, Roque (1880–1883), Primer diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Tipográfico de Álvarez Hermanos, p. 156
12. ^ Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. 128
13. ^ Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. afluencia
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 109
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 89
16. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 49
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 27
18. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. afluencia
19. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. afluencia
20. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. afluencia