affluentia

Forms

affluentia f (genitive affluentiae); first declension^[1] Also spelled adfluentia.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin affluēns + -ia, from the present participle of affluō (“to flow towards; to abound”).^[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds no example before Cicero,^[4] who in a speech on the agrarian law speaks of an abundance of all things.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Pliny the Elder used it in the literal sense of a flowing, of a bodily fluid.^[2][3] Cornelius Nepos says that Atticus aimed at elegance, not extravagance, the sense of sumptuousness,^[2] and Tacitus uses it of a superfluity of pleasures.^[2]

Medieval writers kept the senses of overflowing and abundance; in Britain it also meant fullness of heart or generosity.^[5][6] English took it over in the mid-14th century as affluence, through Old French.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it for an abundance of all things.^[2][8]
• c. 100–24 BC – Cornelius Nepos uses it for extravagance.^[2][8]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it for the flow of a liquid.^[2][8]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it for a superfluity of pleasures.^[2][8]
• mid-14th century – Borrowed into English as affluence.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A flow (of a liquid).^[2][3]
2. Abundance, copiousness.^[2][3]
3. Sumptuousness, extravagance, opulence.^[2][3]
4. A superfluity (of pleasures).^[2]
5. (Medieval Latin) Fullness of heart, generosity.^[5]

Related words

• English affluence

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
6. ^ Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de