Definition 1: A strong creative impulse from a muse or higher power, divine or supernatural inspiration.

Usage 1: The adjective for today's word is "afflatitious" but it has also inspired a more regular family with essentially the same meaning: afflate "to blow upon or inspire" and its noun, afflation "inspiration from mysterious higher powers."

Suggested usage: An afflatus is usually divine, "Collette played the Bach fugues under divine afflatus as we all sat in awe." However, the ultimate test of an afflatus is simply whether it springs from the supernatural, "Arlene must have been under a Satanic afflatus when she agreed to host her husband's office party."

Etymology: Latin afflatus, the past participle of afflare "to blow on" from ad-, (up) to + flare "to blow." The same connection between blowing and inspiration is seen in "inspiration" itself, based on a Latin word meaning to blow in or inhale. The Proto-Indo-European root from which "flare" derives is *bhle-/*bhlo- which shows little change in Modern English "blow." The same root, though, underlies "bladder," perhaps because of the Celts' proclivity to blow into bladders to make music (as in bag-pipes). Nor is it coincidental that blowhards blather—the stems share the same origin. In Latin, however, the initial [bh] became [f] and this root ended up in a word (flare "to blow") that marks blowing at both ends: as in today's word and, again, in "flatulent." (We appreciate the clearly divine afflatus that inspired Lyn Laboriel to suggest today's word.)