Etymograph

English

flative

Flative comes from Latin flātīvus, and goes back to flō ‘to blow’.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEflō1‘to blow’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEflātīvus1
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1599flative1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English flative
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1599, Henry Butts: “Artichokes[…]Please the taste: prouoke vrine and Venus: remoue flatiue…”.

Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEflōWiktionary, English flative‘to blow’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEflātīvusWiktionary, English flative
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1599flativeWiktionary, English flative. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1599, Henry Butts: “Artichokes[…]Please the taste: prouoke vrine and Venus: remoue flatiue…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₁- ‘to blow’

blow, blast, bliss, bladder, flux, fluent, feeble, confluence, fluency, blithely, fluvial, blare, blasé, bleat, blather, 44 more

through Latin flō ‘to blow’

flavor, inflation, inflate, flatulence, soufflé, conflate, 17 more

Today it means

adj Producing farts; flatulent.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “flative”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Latin flō / flative

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