Make Your Point > Archived Issues > EFFLUVIUM

Send Make Your Point issues straight to your inbox.

pronounce EFFLUVIUM: Say it "eh FLOO vee yum." To hear it, click here. connect this word to others: At the heart of our word effluvium is the Latin fluere, meaning "to flow." Or sometimes "to run, to melt, or to stream." You get the idea.  This fluere also gave us words like flux, reflux, fluid, fluent, affluence, influence, confluence, superfluous, and the lovely m____fluous, meaning "sweet, charming, and smoothly flowing, like honey." Can you recall that one? (To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.) definition: The word "effluvium" has Latin roots that mean "(stuff) flowing out." Hundreds of years ago, some people thought magnets shot out an invisible flow of tiny particles. They don't. But the particles were called "effluvium," and over time, the word took on other, similar meanings. By 1656 or so, people were using "effluvium" to describe nasty, offensive odors and other icky things that flow out, and this meaning stuck around. Today, effluvium is any gross stuff that seems to flow out. It might literally look and/or smell foul and nasty, or just seem that way. grammatical bits: Part of speech: Noun, both the countable kind ("one effluvium," "all these effluvia") and the uncountable kind ("all this effluvium"). Other forms:  The plural is "effluvia." It's pretty common. The other forms are rare. For an adjective, you can pick between "effluent" and "effluvious." There's also an alternate noun, "effluence," that you might pick if you wanted to contrast it with "influence," its precise etymological opposite. how to use it: Pick the formal, semi-common, sophisticated word "effluvium" when you want to highlight just how nasty some stream of something is. (Of course, that's often a matter of opinion. Check out the example below about "Harry Potter effluvia"--I would have said "Harry Potter treasures.") You might talk about an "effluvium of" things, like "an effluvium of profanity" or "this effluvium of meaningless music." Although we most often use "effluvium" figuratively, we can certainly use it literally to talk about icky stuff in solid, liquid, or gas form. Here's Science Magazine: "From the pasture to the swamp, methane emissions on Earth are the effluvia of life." examples: "A parent... [hauls] the last box of his child’s shinguards and Harry Potter effluvia into the unsupervised blankness of a dorm room."     — Henry Alford, New York Times, 17 September 2016 "My husband and I are both nasally challenged during spring allergy season, and it is my belief that the person who is dripping, sniffling, and snoring like a bulldog should vacate the marital bed. This allows the person with the sinus symphony to engage in full operatic repertoire without worrying that their effluvia is impinging on the sleep of their partner."    — Emily Yoffe ("Dear Prudence"), Slate, 16 April 2015 has this page helped you understand "effluvium"? Awesome, I'm glad it helped! Thanks for letting me know! If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. study it: Explain the meaning of "effluvium" without saying "icky emanation" or "disgusting output." try it out: According to a Palm Beach Post editorial picked up by the Associated Press, a white man in a ritzy neighborhood shouted at a black teenage girl, "You do not deserve to be in here." The editorial board noted that "once such hatred is hurled, its effluvium clings, no matter how much is done to wash it away." See if you can give another example of something that gives off effluvia. What makes it so nasty? Why is it so hard to wash away? If you like, use this space to write. (To save your work, copy and paste it into an email or a document.) before you review, play: Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out. Our game this month is Subject Line Matching! Try matching each capitalized term below with the email subject line that introduced it. You can check your answers by scrolling all the way down. For an extra challenge, try recalling what each term means and how the subject line connects to it. Have fun! DISSONANCE: _____ INSURMOUNTABLE: _____ MOTTLE: _____ PINCHBECK: _____ ULTIMACY: _____ Aloha Cat and Treat Creature. None of us are licensed! good guys, bad guys, and explosions the "toothpaste & orange juice" of sounds tiiiiiiiiiiiin roooof, rusted unclimbable mountains, unfordable streams review this word: 1. A near opposite of EFFLUVIUM is A. INFLUX. B. INNER CIRCLE. C. INSIDE JOKE. 2. A writer for Scientific American referred to _____ as "digital effluvia." A. spam B. key words C. bandwidth Answers to review questions: 1. A 2. A Answers to the game questions: DISSONANCE: the "toothpaste & orange juice" of sounds INSURMOUNTABLE: unclimbable mountains, unfordable streams MOTTLE: tiiiiiiiiiiiin roooof, rusted PINCHBECK: Aloha Cat and Treat Creature. None of us are licensed! ULTIMACY: good guys, bad guys, and explosions   a final word: I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. From my blog:    36 ways to study words.    Why we forget words, & how to remember them.    How to use sophisticated words without being awkward. To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.