Word of the Day

Dictionary.com Word of the Day for Sunday June 30, 2002: afflatus

afflatus \uh-FLAY-tuhs\, noun:
A divine imparting of knowledge; inspiration.

Whatever happened to passion and vision and the divine afflatus in poetry?
--Clive Hicks, "From 'Green Man' (Ronsdale)," Toronto Star, November 21, 1999

Aristophanes must have eclipsed them . . . by the exhibition of some diviner faculty, some higher spiritual afflatus.
--John Addington Symonds, Studies of the Greek Poets

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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); souffl?, 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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Isn't language wonderful? A word meaning "a divine imparting of knowledge" shares its roots with a word that refers to farting! Yes, it's a thin line...