Etymograph

English

flux

Flux comes from Old French flux ‘diarrhea’, from Latin fluxus ‘flow’, and perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₁- ‘to swell, blow’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰleh₁-1‘to swell, blow’uncertain
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰlewH-1‘to overflow’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰluH-yé-ti1uncertain
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfluō2‘flow’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfluxus3‘flow’
  6. Old Frenchc. 842–1400flux3‘diarrhea’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1670flux3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin fluo
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Latin fluxus
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English flux
  4. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1670, John Milton, The Sixth Book: “The next year vvas calamitous, bringing ſtrange fluxes upon…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰleh₁-Wiktionary, Latin fluo‘to swell, blow’uncertain
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰlewH-Wiktionary, Latin fluo‘to overflow’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰluH-yé-tiWiktionary, Latin fluouncertain
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfluōWiktionary, Latin fluxus‘flow’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfluxusWiktionary, English flux‘flow’
  6. Old Frenchc. 842–1400fluxWiktionary, English flux‘diarrhea’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1670fluxWiktionary, English flux. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1670, John Milton, The Sixth Book: “The next year vvas calamitous, bringing ſtrange fluxes upon…”

Linked words

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

blow, blast, inflation, bliss, flavor, bladder, feeble, inflate, blithely, blare, flatulence, blather, conflate, bleat, 44 more

through Proto-Indo-European *bʰluH-yé-ti

fluidity, confluent, 25 more

through Latin fluō ‘flow’

influence, fluid, fluent, confluence, fluctuate, fluctuation, fluency, affluence, fluorine, flume, fluvial, fluorite, fluor, 27 more

Today it means

noun The act of flowing; a continuous moving on or passing by, as of a flowing stream.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “flux”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin fluo, Latin fluxus. 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 / Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₁- / flux

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