SAY IT
Where flu flows from
February 18, 2009
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Katherine Barber
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
February is often the peak of the flu season. The word "flu" was a 19th-century shortening of "influenza," which the English had borrowed from Italian in 1743. Influenza, like the English word "influence," comes from the Latin influere, meaning "to flow in."
In the Middle Ages, astrologers believed that an ethereal fluid flowing from the stars or heavens affected people's characters and events generally, so influenza in Italian and influence in English referred to the impact of the stars on human life. Since this kind of influence was thought also to cause illness, Italians used influenza to mean a "visitation" of an epidemic disease, such as an influenza of chicken pox or catarrh. When a nasty flu outbreak hit Italy in 1743, people just used the phrase la influenza by itself. As flu does, it spread, and the English adopted the Italian name.
Toronto Star
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