fluir

Forms

fluir (first-person singular present fluyo, first-person singular preterite flui, past participle fluido)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin fluō (“to flow, run”).^[2][3][4][1] Corominas calls it an uncommon Latinism, strictly of the written language, whose derivatives are learned as well.^[2] Older sources give earlier records than his date of 1709: DICCA-XV has the verb in 1440–1460, and the CDH in late 15th-century texts.^[5][6]

The Latin verb continues Proto-Italic *flowō, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰlewH- (“to overflow”).^[7][1] The OLD compares Ancient Greek φλύω (phlúō, “to boil over”).^[8] Spanish has many other words of the same Latin family, borrowed separately: fluido, flujo, fluctuar and fluente.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Spanish translation of Guy de Chauliac's surgery (1498) the arteries se fluyen to the brain.^[6] Corominas's first record is Tosca in 1709, quoted in Autoridades: Hai algunas fuentes que fluyen quando el mar crece “there are some springs that flow when the sea rises”.^[2][9]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades defined it as the running of liquids, said above all of rivers and springs as against still lakes, and of the humours of the body; by analogy also of other subtle things that are not liquid.^[9] From 1817 to 1899 the Academy kept only “to run, of liquids”.^[10][11] Salvá in 1846 added the metaphor of speech or verse running easily, and Domínguez noted its use in oratory and poetry.^[12][13] The DLE now has the figurative sense of ideas and words coming easily, and Moliner the flow of traffic.^[4][14]

Timeline

• 1440–1460 – first record according to DICCA-XV.^[5]
• 1490 – Alfonso de Palencia's Latin–Spanish dictionary glosses Latin fluidus with fluida.^[6]
• 1498 – the translation of Guy de Chauliac uses se fluyen.^[6]
• 1709 – Tosca, Corominas's first record.^[2][3]
• 1711 – first record in the Americas, in Guatemala.^[15]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades defines the running of liquids.^[9]
• 1846 – Salvá records the metaphor of fluent speech.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Latin.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) Of a liquid or gas: to flow, run; also figuratively, of a crowd or traffic: El tráfico fluía sin atascos.^[4][14][1]
2. (intransitive) Of ideas or words: to spring easily from the mind or the mouth.^[4]

Related words

• flojo
• fluente
• fluido
• flujo
• afluir
• confluir
• influir
• refluir
• Latin fluō

Usage notes

It is conjugated like huir, with y before endings that do not begin with i (fluyo, fluye).^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 921
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. fluir
4. ^ a b c d 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. fluir
5. ^ a b Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. fluir
6. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. fluir
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. fluō
9. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 771
10. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 420
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 465
12. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 524
13. ^ 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. 818
14. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. fluir
15. ^ 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. fluir
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 502