afflatus
- noun
- /əˈfleɪtəs/
- Literature
:
aflatus
- During the quiet hours of the night, he experienced an afflatus that led him to compose his most profound poem.
- a divine afflatus
Examples
-
"I saw him presiding over that balcony, from which he may yet bless this multitude should the divine afflatus move him.
Fiction book (1995) -
But Wolfe's temperament was white-hot, his need to digest experience more urgent, and his style of expression too full of the divine afflatus, to the point where his bombastic writing strikes contemporary tastes as almost unreadable.
Academic text (2016) -
"The author who has the 'sign of divine afflatus within,' she argues, must 'not pursue authorship as a vocation with a trading determination to get rich by.'" 23
Academic text (2016) -
The poetic spark had flickered out, the divine afflatus had blown away, creative rapture had fled; and my landlord, insensitive oaf, kept bringing up the question of rent.
Fiction book (1995) -
The artist felt a sudden afflatus while walking through the vibrant city, inspiring her to create a new masterpiece.
-
Many writers believe that their best works come during a moment of intense afflatus, where ideas flow effortlessly.
Synonyms
13
7.9
A special influence from God believed to guide holy writers
A source that gives many new creative ideas
How Inspired
- Literature
90
6.5
52
6.6
- Literature
271
3.5
∞
1.4
∞
1.0
Surface Forms
Etymology
Afflatus comes from Latin parts ad- 'to' and flatus 'a blowing' and originally meant a 'breathing on' someone. Think of a sudden breath filling an artist with ideas, which is why afflatus now means a strong creative inspiration, sometimes felt like a gift from above.