Refluent

Word of the Day

 

 

refluent \ REH-floo-unt \ adjective

 

Definition

 

: flowing back

 

Examples

"And in haste the refluent ocean 
 Fled away from the shore and left the line of the sand-beach 

 Covered with waifs of the tide…."

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline, 1847

"… and I could imagine that the clean water broke away from her sides in refluent wavelets as though in recoil from a thing unclean."
— Frank Norris, A Deal in Wheat and Other Stories of the New and Old West, 1903

 

Did You Know?

Refluent was first documented in English during the 15th century, and it can be traced back to the Latin verb refluere, meaning "to flow back."

Refluere, in turn, was formed from the prefix re- and the verb fluere ("to flow"). Other fluere descendants in English include confluent ("flowing together"), fluent and fluid (both of which share the earliest sense of "flowing easily"), circumfluent ("flowing around"), and even affluent (which first meant "flowing abundantly").

Refluent even has an antonym derived from fluere—effluent, meaning "flowing out."