English
fluctuation
Fluctuation comes from Latin fluctuō ‘to fluctuate, vacillate’, from fluctus ‘a wave, billow’, and ultimately from fluō ‘flow’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfluō‘flow’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEfluctus‘a wave, billow’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEfluctuō‘to fluctuate, vacillate’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEfluctuatiōnem
- Englishearliest quotation 1959fluctuation
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfluō‘flow’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEfluctus‘a wave, billow’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEfluctuō‘to fluctuate, vacillate’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEfluctuatiōnem
- Englishearliest quotation 1959fluctuation
Earliest quotation: 1959, Notes and News: St. Pancras-Bedford Diesel Trains: “The rolling stock has been specially designed to meet…”
Formed from fluctuate + -ion
Latin fluō ‘to flow, stream, pour’
Latin flūctus ‘wave’
Latin flūctuō ‘(of the sea) to surge, swell’
Latin flūctuātus
English fluctuate
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *bʰluH-yé-ti
through Latin fluō ‘flow’
influence, fluid, influx, flux, fluent, confluence, fluency, affluence, flume, fluorine, fluvial, fluorite, fluor, 27 more
Today it means
noun A motion like that of waves; a moving in this and that direction; an irregular rising and falling.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin fluō / fluctuation