inflood

English

WOTD – 13 September 2021

Etymology

PIE word
*h₁én

From in- (prefix meaning ‘in, into; towards’) +‎ flood (“overflow of water from a lake or other body of water; flowing in of the tide; to overflow; to cover or partly fill as if by a flood”). Compare Saterland Frisian Íenfloud (“influence”), West Frisian ynfloed (“influence”), Dutch invloed (“influence”), Middle Low German invlôt (“influence”), German Einfluss (“influence”), Danish indflydelse (“influence”), Swedish inflytande (“influence”), Norwegian innflytelse (“influence”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈinˌflʌd/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: in‧flood

Noun

inflood (plural infloods)

1. The act or process of flooding or flowing in; an inflow or influx.

   Synonyms: inflooding, (obsolete) influence, tide

   • 1839 June, “The Metropolitan Police Bills. […] Paid Magistrates versus Unpaid Justices.”, in The Monthly Law Magazine and Political Review, volume V, number XVII, London: William Crofts, […]; Dublin: Milliken and Son, →OCLC, page 5:

     We are prepared to substantiate our assertion, that two-thirds of the shoal that have of late rushed into our professional main, have been attracted by commissions and offices; have been called in fact to qualify themselves by standing for appointments, without cherishing a hope of maintaining themselves by practice, or even designing to make the attempt. Else why this inflood at a time when courts of quarter sessions are all but abolished, so far as the bar are profited thereby, bail practice annihilated, motions of course made by attorneys'-clerks at the Judges' Chambers, instead of by junior barristers at Westminster, […]

   • 1850 August, “Art. III.—1. The English Language. By R[obert] G[ordon] Latham, […] . Second Edition. London, 1848. 2. Outlines of English Literature. By T. B. Shaw, […]. London, 1849. 3. The Rise, Progress, and Present Structure of the English Language. By the Rev. M. Harrison, […]. London, 1848. [book reviews]”, in [Alexander Campbell Fraser], editor, The North British Review, volume XIII, number XXVI, Edinburgh: W. P. Kennedy, […]; London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co.; Dublin: James M‘Glashan, →OCLC, page 380:

     The Spectator went far in working the change desired by [Jonathan] Swift, a stop having been put to the inflood of Latin words.

   • 1869 December 19, Charlton Lane, “The Pretensions of the Papacy: A Sermon”, in The Church of England Magazine. […], volume LXIX, number 2038, London: S. D. Ewins and Sons, […]; Rogerson and Tuxford, […], published 13 August 1870, →OCLC, page 98, column 1:

     But during the last few years men have been raised up to the rescue of religious liberty, and are stemming back the inflood of papal intolerance.

   • 1899, “Maintenance of Yards and Docks”, in Annual Reports of the Navy Department for the Year 1899: Report of the Secretary of the Navy. Miscellaneous Reports, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 230:

     It has frequently been found that these [timber dry] docks have been incapable of successfully resisting this force, and in many instances the altars have been forced off, the sides of the entrance works have been forced inward, the bottom of the dock has been uplifted, and, where defects in the work have existed, an inflood of water once set up has resulted very disastrously and endangered the entire structure.

   • 1913, Sister Nivedita [Margaret Elizabeth Noble], “The Ship of Flowers”, in Studies from an Eastern Home […], London, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co. […], →OCLC, page 211:

     One thinks of the cry of the Jew, sonorous through the ages—the Jew, who loved not the sea, but lifted his eyes to the hills, to find his help, and lost himself, between "I" and "thee," in an inflood of blessedness: "The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in, from this time forth, and even for evermore."

   • 1918, Richard J[oseph] Purcell, “The Working Government”, in Connecticut in Transition 1775–1818, Washington, D.C.: American Historical Association; London: Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, →OCLC, page 213:

     [T]hey were forced to defend their privileges in the name of the Federalist party against an inflood of democracy which came with the diffusion of political education.

   • 2010, Gemma Files, edited by Sandra Kasturi, A Book of Tongues (The Hexslinger Series; 1)‎^[1], Toronto, Ont.: ChiZine Publications, →ISBN:

     Chess clambered to his feet, feeling power surge along nerves and muscles, electrifying and painful with his fury. Magic welled out from him, pushing back the inflood of thought and leaving him blissfully alone in his head once more.

   • 2012, Robert H[unter] Wade, “Inequality, Global”, in edited by Helmut K. Anheier and Mark Juergensmeyer, Encyclopedia of Global Studies, volumes 2 (E–I), Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE Publishing, →ISBN, page 902, column 2:

     It is no surprise that the North is receiving an inflood of legal and illegal immigrants as communications improve, for the quickest way for the average southerner to multiply his or her consumption many times is to hop across a border into the North, and there are many borders to choose from.

   • 2016, Justin Peters, “The Infinite Librarian”, in The Idealist: Aaron Swartz and the Rise of Free Culture on the Internet, New York, N.Y., London: Scribner, →ISBN, page 114:

     The inflood of support set the stage for a classic narrative denouement in which the underdog triumphs, the villains repent, and the heroes all live on the network happily ever after. But real life rarely resolves as neatly as fiction. The e-mail campaign failed to persuade the university to keep Project Gutenberg alive.

Translations

act or process of flooding or flowing in — see inflow,‎ influx

Verb

inflood (third-person singular simple present infloods, present participle inflooding, simple past and past participle inflooded)

1. (transitive) Of a river, water, etc.: to flood or flow into (a place).
   • 1827, [Richard Emmons], “Canto VII. The Cruise of the Chesapeake.”, in The Fredoniad: Or, Independence Preserved. An Epick Poem on the Late War of 1812. […], volume I, Boston, Mass.: […] [F]or the author, by William Emmons, →OCLC, page 222, lines 696–699:

     But O—Alas! 'twas in thy native town, / Franklin, they strove to crush the hero down; / Revil'd and stamp'd him with the stain of blood, / That he in battle should the foe inflood!

   • 1844 September 12, “Scinde”, in The Indian Mail, a Monthly Register for British and Foreign India, China, and Australasia; […], volume I, number 17, London: W[illia]m H[oughton] Allen and Co., […], →OCLC, page 520, column 2:

     An officer (Capt. Baker) has been despatched to Gharra, with a view to forward the arrangements for a canal between that place and the Indus; […] This is to have the effect of inflooding the country below Shahapore, and returning the blessing of fresh water to the lands which formerly enjoyed it, and which are in the possession of a faithful ally.

   • 2003, Dwight Edwards, “His River Runs Through”, in Releasing the Rivers Within: The Exhilaration of Utter Dependence on God, Colorado Springs, Colo.: WaterBrook Press, Random House, →ISBN, page 19:

     Because of the divine abundance inflooding our souls, there's an important truth for us to remember: To enable us to carry out His will, God is always ready to give us more than enough of Himself.

   • 2018, Donald E. Pease, “F. O. Matthiessen: Heir to (American) Jouissance”, in Joel Goldbach, James A. Godley, editors, Inheritance in Psychoanalysis, Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, →ISBN, page 205:

     In an unpublished letter addressed to [Russell] Cheney on November 20, 1924, [Francis Otto] Matthiessen associates the affective excess inflooding their relationship with the contradictory temporal logics that his specter straddled: […]

2. (intransitive) To flood or flow in; to inflow.
   • 1877 January, [John Campbell] Shairp, “The Clearing of the Glens”, in Alexander Mackenzie, editor, The Celtic Magazine: A Monthly Periodical Devoted to the Literature, History, Antiquities, Folk Lore, Traditions, and the Social and Material Interests of the Celt at Home and Abroad, volume II, number XV, Inverness, Inverness-shire: A. & W. Mackenzie, […], →OCLC, canto IV (The Home by Lochburn), stanza IV, page 104:

     [T]hough remote / From the main ocean many a mile / Inflooded past cape, creek, and kyle, / The sea-loch flanked by precipice walls, / With ever-lessening murmur crawls, / Till 'neath the Pass he lies subdued / By the o'er-aweing solitude; […]

   • 1879, Troubadour [pseudonym], Zarah: A Romaunt of Modern Life, London: Samuel Tinsley & Co., […], →OCLC, page 53:

     Joy, from the light inflooding upon eye and mind, / And heart and soul, calm bliss without care's harsh alloy, […]

   • a. 1961, Ernest Holmes, compiled by George P. Bendall, The Ernest Holmes Papers […]‎^[2], New York, N.Y.: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, published 2014, →ISBN:

     […] Evelyn Underhill said there is a place in every person's mind that is this gateway—the gateway through which things inflood rather than outgo.

Derived terms

• inflooded (adjective)
• inflooding (adjective, noun)

Translations

of a river, water, etc.: to flood or flow into (a place)

to flood or flow in — see inflow

Anagrams

• floodin'