fluxus
fluxus1 flowing, loose
Pronunciation
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
- Flowing, liquid; of a vessel, leaking.[2][1]
- Of clothes or hair, loose, streaming; of weapons, dangling.[2][1]
- Of people or limbs, flabby, feeble; of buildings, crumbling.[2]
- Unstable, uncertain; transitory, fleeting; changeable.[2][5][1]
- Loose in morals, dissolute.[2]
Word family
- flūxipedus
fluxus2 flow
Pronunciation
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
Meanings
Noun
- A flowing, flow; a current.[2][8][5][1]
- (medicine) A discharge, flux.[2][5]
- (Late Latin) An emission of semen.[1]
Related words
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ 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
- ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
- ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
- ^ a b c d e Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
- ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
- ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press