Dictionary

afflation en · NOUN

Etymology

From Latin afflatus, past participle of afflare (“to blow or breathe on”), from ad + flare (“to blow”).

Meanings

1. A blowing or breathing on.
   • Stirred by the winds of some unseen afflation, he becomes restless . 1908, Charles Bruce Pitblado, Edwy Guthrie Pitblado, Nareen, page 104:
   • But there was a new afflation— / An aura zephyring round, / That care infected not: [...] 1922, Thomas Hardy, “An Experience”, in Late Lyrics and Earlier with Many Other Verses, London: Macmillan and Co., […], →OCLC, stanza 2, page 111:
   • At 100 ° F. and in a perfectly damp atmosphere, there occurs an absolute stagnation of the air surrounding the living body: but as air of that temperature is never naturally saturated with moisture. afflation still affords relief by applying air capable of dissolving the animal perspiration, and thus occasioning an absorption of heat from the body. 1829, D. Butter, “On Public Health in India”, in Transactions of the Medical and Physical Society of Calcutta, page 140:
   • Toward the close of those warm, drowsy, Indian-summer afternoons of late September, when the sweet, refreshing air of welcomed evening breathes its cool afflation upon the heated forehead of dull, haggard toil and smoothes caressingly away the furrowed burden from the brow of care, age-worn by many a day; 1909, H. Y. O., “Posthumous Pages from the Memoirs of a Dead Misogamist”, in The Dietetic and Hygienic Gazette, volume 25, page 554:
2. Spiritual inspiration.
   • And precisely at that moment, at the end of the seventh century, in the depths of conquered Armenia, an Armenian called Constantine from the village of Mananalis near Samosata (1) had an afflation . 2018, Alexander Maistrovoy, Gnosticism Through the Prism of the Third Millennium:
   • but on the other side, the frequent testimonies of the Spirit's revealing by way of prophetic afflation, who should be set appart for the offices of the church, are evidences that it was so here. 1845, Henry Hammond, A Paraphrase and Annotations upon all the books of The New Testament:
   • Ironically, afflation at once diminishes the role of the messenger, who may disclaim being anything more than a conduit, and elevates the status of her message, since it comes from the divine. 1998, Earle J. Coleman, Creativity and Spirituality: Bonds between Art and Religion, page 168:
3. Enthusiasm; strength of feeling; emotionality.
   • The vigorous granges, those with a real animate and useful existence, are those dominated by a spirit flowing from the energetic fidelity and devotion of a few—often one or two—members who have caught afflation from a clear apprehension of the power and aims of the institution, and are so far ruled by its precepts that selfish considerations oppose no bar to their application and extension . 1900, The Connecticut Granges, page 119:
   • These Memoirs are introduced by a Preface written by the Author's brother, with considerable elegance and feeling, though by no means devoid of that afflation of style and display of sentiment, which are the great defects of modern Irish eloquence.· 1816, The Eclectic review. vol. 1-New [8th] - Volume 5, page 498:
   • A man may be buoyed up by the afflation of his wild desires to brave any imaginable peril; but he cannot calmly see one he loves braving the same peril; simply because he cannot feel within him that which prompts another. 1846, George Henry Lewes, The Spanish Drama, page 62:
4. A pneumotoxic infection.
   • For example, a pandemic of afflation in maize in a given country may lead to the imposition of an import ban by potential patrons. 2020, Youssef M. Hamada, Agribusiness as the Future of Agriculture, page 196:
   • Pulses and cereals Afflation and Fusarium (fumonisin) contamination of groundnuts, maize, and sorghum is very common, but it is not controlled and there are no regulations or control measures in place. 2024, Pooja Tripathi, Food Nutrition in Human Science, page 63:
   • Regarding the afflation of pharyngeal lymphoids, simple as all agree that this is in skilled hands, opinions differ widely as to the best technique. 1906, “Tonsils, True and False; Including their Bloodless Removal”, in The Pacific Dental Gazette:

Forms