Translation
river, stream; flood, current
Examples
.
The river is wide and deep.
Trans .
He led the army across the river.
.
They were sitting on the bank of the river.
transierunt.
They crossed the river with ships.
.
Many rivers come into the sea.
Flumen, fluminis, n., third declension, from fluo with the -men suffix that turns a verb into the thing it produces. So a flumen is literally "a flowing", and the sense "current, flood" is not a metaphor but the original: flumen secundum is downstream, flumen adversum upstream.
This is the prose word. Caesar crosses flumina; fluvius belongs to poets and later geographers, and amnis is properly the big navigable river. The distinction is real but leaky, and no text respects it throughout. Flumen also runs to figures of speech, flumen orationis, "a flood of words", which is a compliment in Cicero and an insult almost anywhere else. English fluent, fluid, influence, confluence and flux all come off fluo.
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flumen: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the Latin word "flumen" (river, stream; flood, current): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.
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Start your free weekThis word is part of lesson 9.