Origin Story
In medieval Italy, when an epidemic of unknown cause broke out, people looked to the heavens. They believed the arrangement of the stars and planets exerted an "influence" (influenza) over disease on earth. The Italian word influenza came from Latin influentia ("a flowing in," influence), and expressions like influenza delle stelle ("influence of the stars") or influenza di freddo ("influence of the cold") were used to explain why epidemics struck. In 1743 a major flu outbreak in Italy carried the word into the English-speaking world, where it settled in as the medical term for a specific respiratory viral infection. In everyday speech it is shortened to flu, but the official medical term remains influenza.
In an age when astrology was an accepted medical theory, "the influence of the stars" was not superstition but the cutting-edge science of its day. Words of the same origin — influence, influx — all share the root sense of "a power flowing in."
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Oxford English Dictionaryinfluenza: from Italian, literally "influence," from medieval Latin influentia — the epidemic was attributed to the influence of the stars
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Online Etymology Dictionaryinfluenza (n.): 1743, borrowed into English during a European epidemic, from Italian influenza "influenza, epidemic," originally "visitation, influence (of the stars)"
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Merriam-Webster DictionaryItalian, literally, influence, from Medieval Latin influentia — first known use in English: 1743
Word Evolution
Words from the Same Root
Memory Hook
You can see influence hiding inside influenza. Remember it as: "the disease that comes from the influence of the stars."
""Medieval people blamed the stars; modern people discovered the virus — yet the word still remembers the age of the heavens.""
