Affluency

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The state of having a great deal of wealth and abundance
2. A condition characterized by an excess of material goods and financial resources
3. Describing a level of prosperity that allows for generous consumption and the enjoyment of luxury

Etymology: "Affluency" is an obsolete variant of "affluence", and it carries the same two halves of meaning: a literal flowing toward and a later sense of abundance. The base comes from Latin "affluentia", built from "affluere", meaning "to flow towards" or "to flow to", with the prefix "ad-" (here "af-" before a "f") and "fluere", "to flow". English took the word through Old French "affluence", and the original image was of things streaming in, the way water flows toward a place. The surprising turn is that the sense of wealth is comparatively recent in this family. In Latin, "affluentia" did not mean riches. The opposite term, "indigentia", meant poverty or lack, and the two words share only a common Latinate suffix, not a shared root with that sense. The meaning of plenty developed in English and French during the 16th century, when abundance of goods came to be pictured as wealth flowing in.

Synonyms: wealth, richness, prosperity, opulence, luxury

Antonyms: poverty, need, insufficiency, debt, lack