effluvium means A gaseous or vaporous emission, especially a foul-smelling one. It carries an Arena rating of 1744, earned across 48 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, effluvium ranks #1,235 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #1,356 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #1,587 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #1,826 of 17,163 for Funniest Words.
effluvium is pronounced /ɪˈfluːvi.əm/.
Why “effluvium” is a great word
EFFLUVIUM — [Noun] A foul-smelling gaseous or vaporous emission, or a condition causing the shedding of hair. From Latin effluvium ("an outlet"), from effluō ("to flow out"), from ex- ("out") + fluō ("to flow"). First attested in English in the 1640s. Unlike "odor," which can be pleasant or neutral, or its plural "effluvia," which merely quantifies the offense, an effluvium is a singular, persistent outflow of corruption. It is the sulphurous whisper from a volcanic vent, the greasy miasma rising from a city grate, and the invisible, melancholic cause of hair loosening from the scalp—the palpable, gaseous evidence of something essential escaping its proper bounds, a slow and irreversible leak.
Etymology
From Latin effluvium (“an outlet”), from effluō (“flow out or away”), from ex (“out of, from”) + fluō (“flow”).
noun
- A gaseous or vaporous emission, especially a foul-smelling one.
- A condition causing the shedding of hair.e.g.“Reversible hair loss or effluvium occurs following either endogenous or exogenous damage to anagen hair follicles[…].” — 2000, Dr. Otto Braun-Falco et al., “Diseases of hair”, in Dermatology, →ISBN, page 1136:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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