English

Noun

effluvium ‎(plural effluvia or effluviums)

1. A gaseous or vaporous emission, especially a foul-smelling one.
   • 1835, William Gilmore Simms, The Partisan, Harper, Chapter XV, page 188:

     She was now bending over a huge light wood blaze, with a pipe of rude structure and no small dimensions in her mouth, from which the occasional puff went forth, filling the apartment with the unpleasant effluvia of the vilest leaf-tobacco.

   • 1906, O. Henry, The Furnished Room

     And he breathed the breath of the house—a dank savour rather than a smell—a cold, musty effluvium as from underground vaults mingled with the reeking exhalations of linoleum and mildewed and rotten woodwork.

2. A condition causing the shedding of hair.
   • 2000, Dr. Otto Braun-Falco, et al., “Diseases of hair”, in Dermatology, ISBN 3-540-59452-3, page 1136:

     Reversible hair loss or effluvium occurs following either endogenous or exogenous damage to anagen hair follicles […] .

Translations

Latin

Etymology

From effluō ‎(“flow out or away”), from ex ‎(“out of, from”) + fluō ‎(“flow”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /efˈflu.wi.um/

Noun

effluvium n ‎(genitive effluviī); second declension

1. The act of flowing out; discharge of liquid, outlet, efflux.

Inflection

Second declension.

Synonyms

• (act of flowing out): effluus

Related terms

• effluēscō
• effluō
• effluus

Descendants

References

• effluvium in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• effluvium in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “effluvium”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.