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Today's Word "afflatus"

A divine imparting of knowledge on

Published in Vocabulary

afflatus \uh-FLAY-tuhs\ (noun) - A divine imparting of knowledge; inspiration.

"The miraculous spring that nourished the poet's afflatus seems out of reach of today's writers, whose desperate yearning for inspiration only indicates the coming of an 'age of exhaustion.'"

 

Afflatus is from Latin afflatus, past participle of afflare, "to blow at or breathe on," from ad-, "at" + flare, "to puff, to blow." Other words with the same root include deflate (de-, "out of" + flare); inflate (in-, "into" + flare); souffle, the "puffed up" dish (from French souffler, "to puff," from Latin sufflare, "to blow from below," hence "to blow up, to puff up," from sub-, "below" + flare); and flatulent.


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