Talk:flux

RFV

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flux

Rfv-sense: Flowing; unstable; inconstant; variable. I tried the first couple at onelook.com and they had no entry. Any evidence to say they are wrong, chaps? Renard Migrant (talk) 22:08, 29 December 2014 (UTC)

I have never heard of it as an adjective, but the phrase "in a state of flux" is quite common. But flux is being used as a noun there. But "a flux situation" can be found on Google. Donnanz (talk) 22:56, 29 December 2014 (UTC)

The OED has flux as an obsolete adjective, meaning "that is in a state of flux; ever-changing, fluctuating, inconstant, variable", with last cite being from 1797. More recent usages in Google Books seem to be just attributive use of the noun, but I haven't scrutinised all examples. Dbfirs 11:13, 30 December 2014 (UTC)

All nouns, including proper nouns, can be used attributively. But they are still nouns. @Dbfirs we should check that the OED is right, no? Can you copy up the citations if you can see them? Renard Migrant (talk) 21:50, 31 December 2014 (UTC)

The OED's citations are as follows:

a1677 I. Barrow Of Contentm. (1685) 106 Considering..the flux nature of all things here.

1741 Mem. Martinus Scriblerus 44 in Pope Wks. II A Corporation..is..a flux body.

1768 W. Blackstone Comm. Laws Eng. III. xxi. 318 The record..was more serviceable..in a dead and immutable language than in any flux or living one.

1797 G. Staunton Authentic Acct. Embassy to China II. vii. 573 The form of those characters has not been so flux as the sound of words.

The first two are possibly attributive usage of the noun, but the last two seem to be adjectival use. This usage is obsolete, of course, but I expect we can find one more in Google Books, for example ... which is not so flux, mutable, and perishable, (according to them) as the grosser parts of the body from 1780 (The monthly review, or, literary journal - Volume 61 - Page 224). Dbfirs 10:07, 4 January 2015 (UTC)

This is predicative:

• 1789, Thomas Cooper, Tracts, Ethical, Theological and Political[1]:

  ... for if the particles of the brain be so loose, and so flux as here represented, then is the soul united not to one, as every immaterialist hath hitherto supposed, ...

--Dan Polansky (talk) 16:24, 4 January 2015 (UTC)

• Both the 1789 and 1797 cites seem to clearly support an Adjective PoS. There are probably more. Perhaps searching for collocation of flux with common adverbs will generate more. DCDuring TALK 16:28, 4 January 2015 (UTC)

  The 1780 looks good too, which would be three. But I can't find more at Books with very, too, and so, nor could I find those citations. DCDuring TALK 16:35, 4 January 2015 (UTC)

One more predicative:

• 1831, multiple authors, The Law of Reason[2]:

  Were the body so flux as here represented, then the soul is not united to one, but to an almost infinite number of bodies in succession.

  (Not sure whether this is truly independent of the Cooper quotation above: notice the very similar phrasing about representation and soul being (or not) united to one.)

--Dan Polansky (talk) 16:43, 4 January 2015 (UTC)

Attributive flux modified by very (google books:"a very flux"):

• 1820, author?, The British Review, and London Critical Journal[3]:

  This is one sort of reputation ; obviously of a very flux character : ...

• 1961,Susan Yorke, Captain China[4]:

  He impressed her as a mere youth in a very flux state, and if a lord held a contrary notion to hers, how could she be right?

• 2000, Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in America[5]:

  I have no “political ambitions,” per se, but I think we have a very flux situation in Colorado & ...

--Dan Polansky (talk) 16:59, 4 January 2015 (UTC)

RFV-passed based on the citations above. Thanks for finding them, Dan! - -sche (discuss) 20:45, 6 March 2015 (UTC)

I've removed the "archaic" tag, too, based on the 1961 and 2000 citations. - -sche (discuss) 20:47, 6 March 2015 (UTC)