Etymology

affluent

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Today it means: Someone who is wealthy. Full definition →

Middle French affluent ← Latin affluentem
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromaffluentem
  2. Middle French · borrowed fromaffluent
  3. English todayaffluent

Borrowed from Middle French affluent, borrowed in turn from Latin affluentem, accusative singular of affluēns, present active participle of affluō (“flow to or towards; overflow with”), from ad (“to, towards”) + fluō (“flow”) (cognate via latter to fluid, flow). Sense of “wealthy” (plentiful flow of goods) c. 1600, which also led to nominalization affluence. By surface analysis, af- + fluent.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.