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afflatus

Definitions

  • WordNet 3.6
    • n afflatus a strong creative impulse; divine inspiration "divine afflatus"
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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
    • Afflatus A breath or blast of wind.
    • Afflatus A divine impartation of knowledge; supernatural impulse; inspiration. "A poet writing against his genius will be like a prophet without his afflatus ."
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Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
    • n afflatus A blowing or breathing on, as of wind; a breath or blast of wind.
    • n afflatus An impelling mental force acting from within; supernal impulse or power, as of prophecy or expression; religious, poetic, or oratorical inspiration. Often spoken of as the divine afflatus, a translation of the Latin afflatus divinus, inspiration.
    • ***
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
    • n Afflatus af-flā′tus inspiration, as of the poet or orator: esp. religious inspiration, the divine afflatus = L. afflatus divinus.
    • ***

Etymology

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
L., fr. afflare,. See Afflation
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
See Inflation.

Usage

In literature:

A sort of prophetic spirit and an afflatus of the future circulates there, swelling hearts and enlarging souls.
"Les Misérables Complete in Five Volumes" by Victor Hugo
He and the like of him do better; they supply the afflatus.
"Brother Copas" by Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
Nothing is to be done without the divine afflatus, and plenty of it.
"My Contemporaries In Fiction" by David Christie Murray
But the divine afflatus no doubt worked differently in different ages.
"Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 146, March 18, 1914" by Various
The young people, both representing the afflatus of the State, met in one tragic look which ended in a smile.
"Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 26, August, 1880" by Various
A voice, not from the lips of the recumbent victim, but as though it were some inward afflatus, hollow and sepulchral.
"Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 2 (of 2)" by John Roby
So far was the afflatus of the Spirit from being conditioned by the rite, that in Acts x.
"Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 3" by Various
Their sublime utterances were accepted as proceeding from a divine afflatus.
"Christianity and Greek Philosophy" by Benjamin Franklin Cocker
I was visiting in the house where the old lady lives upon whom the afflatus fell.
"Things as They Are" by Amy Wilson-Carmichael
From me the divine afflatus has been withheld.
"The Paliser case" by Edgar Saltus
On the other hand, their accuracy may have been secured by the divine afflatus.
"The Origin of the World According to Revelation and Science" by John William Dawson
But the stern problems of Puritanism touched two souls with the divine afflatus.
"A Short History of England, Ireland and Scotland" by Mary Platt Parmele
They like to think that we are a hazy lot, sitting around and posing and waiting for some sort of divine afflatus.
"Literature in the Making" by Various
Afflatus requires personal mediums; and probably success depends on the due adjustment of the proportion between afflatus and medium.
"History of American Socialisms" by John Humphrey Noyes
So it seems that our poet drank in the divine afflatus, as it were, with his mother's milk.
"Vondel's Lucifer" by Joost van den Vondel
This epistle shows that St Paul was touched with the poetic as well as the prophetical afflatus.
"The Expositor's Bible: Ephesians" by G. G. Findlay
Ignatius, too, still feels the afflatus.
"The Making of the New Testament" by Benjamin W. Bacon
What in this piece ENRY HAUTHOR JONES mistook for the "divine afflatus" is mere long-windedness.
"Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 105 October 7, 1893" by Various
Even as it was, only those people who felt the breath of the Divine afflatus rose up for the arduous undertaking.
"Expositor's Bible: Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther" by Walter Adeney
Seeking only expression for the divine afflatus within him, he had no thought of self, no care for the morrow.
"Genius in Sunshine and Shadow" by Maturin Murray Ballou
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In poetry:

When the Tinoceras snooped about,
And the Pterodactyl flapped its wings,
When the Brontops with the warty snout
Noseyed around for herbs and things,
Would I have bothered myself o’ermuch
About divine afflatus and such?
"Extinct Monsters" by Eugene Field

In news:

But now he's been hoisted on his own former arguments, and with a moral afflatus from one of his own judicial appointees .
online.wsj.com
He doesn't know much about it, but the idea has given him a powerful afflatus.
nybooks.com
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