Table of Contents
The word for today is…
afflatus (noun) – A strong creative impulse, especially as a result of divine inspiration.
Source : The Free Dictionary
Etymology : Inspiration might be described as a breath of fresh air, and so it is appropriate that inspire derives in part from a word meaning “to breathe”—Latin spirare. Afflatus is a lesser-known word for inspiration that followed a parallel route. Afflatus, which in Latin means “the act of blowing or breathing on,” was formed from the prefix ad- (“to, toward”) and the Latin verb flare (“to blow”). That Latin verb gave us such words as inflate and (via French) soufflé. The Roman orator Cicero used afflatus in his writings to compare the appearance of a new idea to a breath of fresh air. Nowadays, one often finds the word preceded by the adjective divine, but poets and artists can find afflatus in the material world as well.
