“Influence” Once Flowed Down From the Stars
Today, influence means the power to shape someone’s choices, opinions, or behavior. But medieval Europeans believed influence was something that literally flowed from the heavens.
The word comes from the Latin influere, meaning “to flow into,” formed from in-—“into”—and fluere—“to flow.”
Medieval astrologers imagined that stars and planets released an invisible fluid or force that flowed into people and affected their health, personality, and destiny. This celestial power became known in Medieval Latin as influentia.
As belief in astrology weakened, the word lost its supernatural meaning but kept the idea of an unseen force producing change. By the early modern period, people could influence one another without assistance from the planets. Today, advertisements influence purchases, parents influence children, and social media influencers shape fashions and opinions.
Here is the memorable surprise: influenza comes from the same word family. Italians once called the illness influenza because epidemics were thought to result from the “influence” of the stars. The name survived even after germs replaced astrology as the explanation.
So influence and influenza both began with something invisible flowing into us—one changing our decisions, the other making us sick.
