affluent

EnglishEdit

Borrowed from Middle French affluent, borrowed in turn from Latin affluentem, accusative singular of affluēns, present active participle of affluō (“flow to or towards; overflow with”), from ad (“to, towards”) + fluō (“flow”) (cognate via latter to fluid, flow). Sense of “wealthy” (plentiful flow of goods) c. 1600, which also led to nominalization affluence.^[1]

(US)
- enPR: ăf'lo͞o-ənt, IPA^(key): /ˈæfluːənt/
  Audio (US) (file)
- enPR: ă-flo͞o'ənt, ə-flo͞o'ənt, IPA^(key): /æˈfluːənt/, /əˈfluːənt/
- Although the pronunciation with second-syllable stress does occur in educated U.S. usage, it is appreciably less common than the pronunciation with first-syllable stress^[2]^[3] and is regarded as unacceptable by many American speakers.^[3]

affluent (plural affluents)

Somebody who is wealthy.
- 1994, Philip D. Cooper, Health care marketing: a foundation for managed quality (page 183)
  The affluents are most similar to the professional want-it-alls in their reasons for preferring specific hospitals and in their demographic characteristics.
A stream or river flowing into a larger river or into a lake; a tributary stream; a tributary.
- 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:
  The affluents of the Amazon are, half of them, of this nature, while the other half are whitish and opaque, the difference depending upon the class of country through which they have flowed.

someone wealthy

Bulgarian: богата́ш (bg) m (bogatáš)
Catalan: opulent (ca) m, acomodat (ca) m
Chinese:
Mandarin: 富翁 (zh) (fùwēng), 富人 (zh) (fùrén)
Dutch: rijkaard (nl) m
Finnish: varakas (fi)
French: richard (fr) m
German: Reicher (de) m, Geldsack (de) m (pejorative)
Greek: πλούσιος (el) m (ploúsios)
Hungarian: tehetős (hu)
Indonesian: berkecukupan (id)
Japanese: 金持ち (ja) (かねもち, kanemochi), 金満家 (きんまんか, kinmanka)
Macedonian: имотник m (imotnik), богаташ m (bogataš)
Norwegian: velstående
Russian: бога́ч (ru) m (bogáč)
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: имућник m, богаташ m

Roman: imućnik m, bogataš (sh) m
Spanish: ricachón m (pejorative)
Turkish: zengin (tr), varsıl (tr), varlıklı (tr)
Ukrainian: багаті́й (uk) m (bahatíj), багаті́йка (uk) f (bahatíjka)

tributary — see tributary

affluent (comparative more affluent, superlative most affluent)

Abundant; copious; plenteous.
- 1860, Mary Howitt (translator), Life in the Old World:
  The shores are affluent in beauty, and incomparably lovely is the drive to the heights of Castel-a-Mare.
(by extension) Abounding in goods or riches; having a moderate level of material wealth.
They were affluent, but aspired to true wealth.
- 2013 September-October, Michael Sivak, “Will AC Put a Chill on the Global Energy Supply?”, in American Scientist:
  Nevertheless, it is clear that the global energy demand for air-conditioning will grow substantially as nations become more affluent, with the consequences of climate change potentially accelerating the demand.
The Upper East Side is an affluent neighborhood in New York City.
(dated) Tributary.
(obsolete) Flowing to; flowing abundantly.
- 1672, Gideon Harvey, Morbus Anglicus, Or, The Anatomy of Consumptions:
  
  affluent blood