Primary
''effluvium'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20250804005708-00-⌔
effluvium - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
English
Noun
effluvium (countable and uncountable, plural effluvia or effluviums)
- A gaseous or vaporous emission, especially a foul-smelling one.
- ✤ She was now bending over a huge light wood blaze, with a pipe of rude structure and no small dimensions in her mouth, from which the occasional puff went forth, filling the apartment with the unpleasant effluvia of the vilest leaf-tobacco.1
- ✤ It was the mere effluvium of the flame, the subtle ether that it cast off as it passed, working on us, and making us feel strong as giants and swift as eagles.2
- ✤ And he breathed the breath of the house—a dank savour rather than a smell—a cold, musty effluvium as from underground vaults mingled with the reeking exhalations of linoleum and mildewed and rotten woodwork.3
- A condition causing the shedding of hair.
- ✤ Reversible hair loss or effluvium occurs following either endogenous or exogenous damage to anagen hair follicles […].4
Etymology
From Latin effluvium (“an outlet”), from effluō (“flow out or away”), from ex (“out of, from”) + fluō (“flow”).
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ɪˈfluːvi.əm/
- Audio (Southern England): 🔊
- Rhymes: -uːviəm
- Hyphenation: ef‧flu‧vi‧um
Printed 2026-06-28.
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Link to original Footnotes
1835, William Gilmore Simms, The Partisan, Harper, Chapter XV, page 188: ↩
1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC: ↩
1906, O. Henry, The Furnished Room: ↩
2000, Dr. Otto Braun-Falco et al., “Diseases of hair”, in Dermatology, →ISBN, page 1136: ↩
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