fluentum

Forms

fluentum n (genitive fluentī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin fluō (“to flow”),^[2][3][1] probably a singular made from ⟨fluenta⟩, the neuter plural of the present participle fluēns (“flowing”), as Leumann explains it.^[4] The verb goes back to Proto-Italic *flow-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *bʰleuH- (“to flow over”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler record it first in Lucretius,^[4][5] who speaks of fluenta lubrica, “slippery streams”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It is a word of poetry and of post-classical prose, used mostly in the plural for the waters of a stream or river: Virgil has Xanthi fluenta and Tiberina fluenta, and also the waters of a lake.^[2][3] Lucretius once uses it for a current of air, and Apuleius for a stream of flames.^[3]

The singular appears in Apuleius, Ausonius and Prudentius.^[3] In the Vulgate it is used of the Jordan, and in Ecclesiastical Latin it means a river or running water.^[3][6]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses fluenta for streams.^[4][3][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of the Xanthus and the Tiber.^[3][5]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses the singular, and the phrase “streams of flames”.^[3][5]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it of the waters of the Jordan.^[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (usually plural) A stream, river, flood; the waters of a river or lake.^[2][3]
2. A stream or current of something else, such as air or fire.^[3]

Word family

• fluentisonus

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson