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In this Adventure in Etymology we discover the origins of the word influence.
Influence [ˈɪn.flu.əns] can refer to the power to affect, control or manipulate something or someone; an action exerted by a person or thing on another to cause change, or a person or thing exerting such power or action.
In astrology, influence is apparently an element believed to determine someone’s character or individual tendencies, caused by the position of the stars and planets at the time of one’s birth, and it used to mean the action of flowing in or an influx.
As a verb to influence can mean to have an effect on by using gentle or subtle action; to modify, bias or sway; to persuade or induce; to exert or make use of one’s influence, and it used to mean to cause to flow in, to infuse or to instill.
It comes from Middle English influence / influens (control, power, influence, flowing, influx), from Old French influence (inundation, flooding, influence, especially viewed as a mystical force affecting one’s fate), from Medieval Latin īnfluentia (influence), from Latin īnfluēns (flowing into), from īnfluō (to flow into, stream, rush, throng), from in (in, within) and fluō (to flow, stream, pour) [source].
Words from the same Latin roots include influx and influenza in English, influencia (influence, clout, leverage) and influjo (influx, sway, influence) in Spanish, influenza (influence, influenza) in Italian, influer (to influence) in French [source].
Other words with similarly fluid roots (fluō in Latin) include fluid, flume, flux, affluent, effluent, confluent, superfluous in English, confluir (to converge) in Catalan, and fiume (river) in Italian [source].
Incidentally, this is the 200th episode of the Adventures in Etymology podcast. You can find links to all previous episodes on the Adventures in Etymology page of this blog.
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I also write about words, etymology and other language-related topics on the Omniglot Blog, and I explore etymological connections between Celtic languages on the Celtiadur blog.