diffluencyn.
/ˈdɪfluːənsi/, U.S. /ˈdɪfluənsi/ Now rare.
The quality or condition of being diffluent; diffluence.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > liquid > liquid flow > action or process of flowing > [noun] > quality or condition of
fluxibility1574
diffluency1646
fluxility1660
defluency1665
scaturiency1667
1646 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica ii. i. 50 Ice is only water congealed by the frigidity of the ayre, whereby it acquireth no new forme, but rather a consistence, or determination of its diffluency . View more context for this quotation
1673 R. Sharrock De Finibus Virtutis Christianæ ii. 123 He was able..to restore that to life that was not only dead,..but lying in the midst of its putrescency, diffluency and stench.
a1687 H. More Disc. Script. (1692) i. 23 This Truth..will..not suffer any diffluency of our minds into folly and vanity.
1708 J. Norris Philos. Disc. Nat. Immortality of Soul ii. 76 The diffluency or running abroad of Water in a shatter'd or broken Vessel.
1853 Lancet 22 Oct. 388/1 The ventricular effusion also must exist, by which such infiltration may ensue as to give rise to the greater or less diffluency present.
1873 St. Louis Med. & Surg. Jrnl. Mar. 131 Below 5th cervical the outlines of grey matter indistinct from diffluency.
1980 Romanian Rev. No. 11. 131 The poet has the ability—by means of what Tudor Vianu called ‘the diffluency of imagination’—to merge categories, sensations, time and space.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1646