afflux means an upward rush of fluid. It carries an Arena rating of 1473, earned across 98 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, afflux ranks #317 of 17,149 for Most Exacting Words, #559 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #2,240 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words, #3,252 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words.
Why “afflux” is a great word
A flowing or rushing toward a point, especially an upward surge of fluid or a rise in water level upstream of an obstruction. From the Medieval Latin affluxus, a noun from the past participle of Latin affluere ("to flow toward"), from ad- ("to") + fluere ("to flow"), first attested in English in the 1610s. Unlike influx, which broadly denotes any flowing in of people or things, or efflux, its direct opposite signifying outward flow, afflux is the precise, hydraulic term for a pressurized, directional convergence. It is the silent, muscular swell against a concrete weir, the choked lift of brown water gathering at the upstream side of a fallen log, the visible tension in a channel before it spills—the quiet, accumulating force that precedes every breach.
Etymology
From Latin affluĕre, affluxum. See affluent.
noun
- An upward rush of fluid.e.g.“The vis viva of these affluxes is employed almost wholly in turning the mass of intermediate gas […]” — 1874 January 9, "Chemical News from Foreign Sources," Chemical News http://books.google.com/books?id=jOUEAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA20-IA6&dq=affluxes&ei=oWrlRqH2I6HApgKCooX7AQ, page 26, of waterspouts
- The rise in water level (above normal) on the upstream side of a bridge or obstruction caused when the effective flow area at the obstruction is less than the natural width of the stream immediately upstream of the obstruction.e.g.“Backwater due to the crossing as a whole should not be confused with local afflux at piers due to pileup of flow against the hydraulic stagnation point […]” — 2004, Transportation Association of Canada, Guide to Bridge Hydraulics, →ISBN, page 66:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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