English
fluent
Fluent comes from Latin fluens ‘flowing’, and goes back to fluō ‘to flow’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfluō‘to flow’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEfluens‘flowing’present active participle of fluō
- Englishearliest quotation 1603fluent
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfluō‘to flow’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEfluens‘flowing’present active participle of fluō
- Englishearliest quotation 1603fluent
Earliest quotation: 1603, Michel de Montaigne, The Essayes […]: “For time is a fleeting thing, and which appeareth…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₁- ‘to swell, blow’
blow, blast, inflation, flavor, bliss, bladder, feeble, inflate, blithely, blare, blather, flatulence, conflate, blasé, bleat, soufflé, 46 more
through Proto-Indo-European *bʰluH-yé-ti
through Latin fluō ‘to flow’
influence, fluid, influx, flux, fluctuate, fluctuation, confluence, fluorine, flume, fluvial, affluence, fluorite, fluor, 27 more
Today it means
adj That flows; flowing, liquid.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin fluō / fluent