Word of the Day: Inflation
inflation
in-fla-tion / ĭn-flā-shən
noun
1. the act of causing something to expand by filling with air or gas
One good thing can be said for inflation: without it there would be no football.
Marty Ragaway, 1923 – 1989
2. ever higher price levels or a decline in the purchasing power of money, caused when a government increases the money supply and credit compared with the availability of goods and services
In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation.
Alan Greenspan, 1926 –
3. the rate at which price levels climb over a period of time
U.S. Inflation Is Highest in 13 Years as Prices Surge 5%.
Gwynn Guilford, “U.S. Inflation Is Highest in 13 Years as Prices Surge 5%”, ‘The Wall Street Journal’, www.wsj.com/articles/us-inflation-consumer-price-index-may-2021-11623288303, June 10, 2021
4. the state of being puffed up with vanity or self-importance; haughtiness
Magnitude and splendour of language when the thought is too shrunken to fill it out, becomes mere inflation.
“English Literature: Modern” by G. H. Mair, 1887 – 1926
etymology
From the Latin feminine noun inflatio, inflationis (a puffing up, flatulence, swelling, expansion) derived ultimately from a combination of the Latin prepositional prefix in- (in, into, on, onto), the Latin verb flo, flare, flavi, flatum (blow), and the Latin abstract-noun-forming suffix -tio, tionis indicating the action of a verb.
Thank you to Allen Ward for providing the etymology of inflation.
