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fluxus

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word fluxus

fluxus1 flowing, loose

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 250–184 BC, Plautus
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European (*bʰleuH-)

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈfɫuːk.sʊs], [ˈfɫʊk.sʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈfluk.sus], [ˈfluk.sus][1]

Forms

flū̆xus (feminine flū̆xa, neuter flū̆xum, comparative flū̆xior); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

The adjective is the perfect participle of fluō (“to flow”).[2][1] Wiktionary explains the unexpected ⟨x⟩ of the stem by analogy with pairs such as struō and strūxī.[1] De Vaan traces fluō to Proto-Italic *flow-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *bʰleuH- (“to flow over”), comparing Ancient Greek φλύω (phlúō, “to boil over”) and Lithuanian bliáuti (“to bleat, sob”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus.[4] The OLD's earliest example is in Lucretius, who compares the mind to a leaking, pierced vessel.[2]

Semantic evolution

It means flowing or liquid, as of the juices of purple shellfish in Pliny the Elder.[2] Of clothes and hair it is loose or streaming, and of weapons dangling: Livy has a sling's loose thong, Suetonius Caesar's loose belt, and Tacitus a woman with streaming hair shaking a thyrsus.[2] Of people and their limbs it is flabby or feeble, as young men's bodies in Columella, and of buildings crumbling, as walls decayed with age in Tacitus.[2] Figuratively it is unstable or fleeting: Sallust calls the glory of riches fleeting and fragile and young men's minds changeable.[2] Suetonius uses it of a loose, dissolute life.[2] Church Latin glosses it transitory.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.[4]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius of a leaking vessel.[2][4]
  • 86–34 BC – Sallust of fleeting glory.[2][4]
  • late 14th century – English flux is borrowed through French or from Latin.[6]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Flowing, liquid; of a vessel, leaking.[2][1]
  2. Of clothes or hair, loose, streaming; of weapons, dangling.[2][1]
  3. Of people or limbs, flabby, feeble; of buildings, crumbling.[2]
  4. Unstable, uncertain; transitory, fleeting; changeable.[2][5][1]
  5. Loose in morals, dissolute.[2]

Word family

  • flūxipedus

fluxus2 flow

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
23/24–79 AD, Pliny the Elder
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European (*bʰleuH-)
Etymology tree of fluxus2
inherited borrowed derived
Latin fluo
Latin flumen
Latin fluito
Latin fluxus
Latin fluctus
Latin fluctuo
Latin interfluo
Latin confluo
Latin defluo
Latin diffluo
Latin effluo
Latin circumfluo
Latin profluo
Latin superfluo
Latin fluens

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈfɫuːk.sʊs], [ˈfɫʊk.sʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈfluk.sus], [ˈfluk.sus][1]

Forms

flū̆xus m (genitive flū̆xūs); fourth declension[1]

Etymology

The noun is from Latin fluō (“to flow”) + -tus, an action noun.[2][1] The TLL compares flūctus (“wave”).[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Pliny the Elder, who uses it of a current of air.[4][8]

Semantic evolution

It is a flowing or flow, a word Lewis & Short call post-Augustan: Pliny the Elder defines wind as a flow of air and tells of a fish that stops discharges from pregnant women, and Justinus has a flow of blood.[8] In medicine it is a discharge or flux.[2] Tertullian, the Vulgate, Augustine and Gregory the Great use it.[7] Wiktionary notes a euphemistic Late Latin use for an emission of semen.[1] Church Latin glosses it issue, flux, flow, tide.[5]

Timeline

  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of a flow of air.[8][4]
  • 390–406 AD – the Vulgate uses it.[7][4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A flowing, flow; a current.[2][8][5][1]
  2. (medicine) A discharge, flux.[2][5]
  3. (Late Latin) An emission of semen.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c d e Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  6. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  8. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
Cite this entry

“Fluxus.” Etymologically, 19 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/fluxus. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

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