deluge

See also Deluge

English

WOTD – 19 May 2008    

Etymology

From Old French deluge, alteration of earlier deluvie, from Latin dīluvium, from lavō (“wash”)

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈdɛl.juːdʒ/, X-SAMPA: /"dEl.jU:dZ/
• (US) IPA: /ˈdɛl.ju(ː)dʒ/, /ˈdɛl.ju(ː)ʒ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

deluge (plural deluges)

1. A great flood or rain.

   The deluge continued for hours, drenching the land and slowing traffic to a halt.

2. An overwhelming amount of something.

   The rock concert was a deluge of sound.

Translations

a great flood

• Bulgarian: потоп (bg) (potop) m
• Catalan: diluvi (ca) m
• Esperanto: diluvo (eo)
• Finnish: tulva (fi), vedenpaisumus (fi)
• French: déluge (fr)
• Ido: diluvio (io)

• Italian: diluvio (it) m
• Polish: potop (pl) m
• Portuguese: dilúvio (pt) m
• Russian: потоп (ru) (potóp) m
• Scottish Gaelic: tuil (gd) f
• Spanish: diluvio (es) m

an overwhelming amount of something

• Danish: overflod (da)
• Dutch: overvloed (nl), stortvloed (nl)
• French: déluge (fr)
• Italian: diluvio (it) m

• Polish: potop (pl) m, zalew (pl) m
• Scottish Gaelic: tuil (gd) f
• Spanish: diluvio (es) m

The Deluge

• Bulgarian: Потопът (bg) (Potopǎt) m
• Dutch: Zondvloed (nl) f
• Finnish: vedenpaisumus (fi)
• French: Déluge (fr)
• German: Sintflut (de) f

• Italian: diluvio universale (it)
• Polish: Potop (pl) m
• Russian: всемирный потоп (ru) (vsemírnyj potóp) m
• Scottish Gaelic: an Tuil Ruadh (gd) f
• Spanish: diluvio universal (es)

Verb

deluge (third-person singular simple present deluges, present participle deluging, simple past and past participle deluged)

1. (transitive) To flood with water.
2. (transitive) To overwhelm.

   After the announcement, they were deluged with requests for more information.

Translations

to flood with water

• Bulgarian: наводнявам (bg) (navodnjavam)
• Finnish: tulvia (fi)
• French: inonder (fr)
• Hungarian: eláraszt (hu)

• Italian: inondare (it), allagare (it)
• Russian: затоплять (ru) (zatopljátʹ) impf., наводнять (ru) (navodnjátʹ) impf., затапливать (ru) (zatáplivatʹ) impf.

to overwhelm

• Finnish: hukkua (fi), hukuttaa (fi)
• French: inonder (fr)

• Italian: inondare (it), sommergere (it), tempestare (it)
• Russian: заваливать (ru) (zaválivatʹ) impf. (e.g. with work, letters, requests, tc.)

References

• 1996, T.F. Hoad, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Etymology, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0192830988

See also

• inundate

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Old French

Noun

deluge m (oblique plural deluges, nominative singular deluges, nominative plural deluge)

1. large flood

Descendants

• English: deluge (borrowed)