Floruit

Floruit (/ˈflɔːrjuɪt/), abbreviated fl. (or occasionally flor.), Latin for "he/she flourished", denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active.[1][2] In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indicating the time when someone flourished.[1]

"Flourished" and "fl." redirect here. For other uses, see Flourish (disambiguation) and FL (disambiguation).

Etymology and use

Latin: flōruit is the third-person singular perfect active indicative of the Latin verb flōreō, flōrēre "to bloom, flower, or flourish", from the noun flōs, flōris, "flower".[3][2]

Broadly, the term is employed in reference to the peak of activity for a person, movement, or such. More specifically, it often is used in genealogy and historical writing when a person's birth or death dates are unknown, but some other evidence exists that indicates when he or she was alive.[4] For example, if there are wills attested by John Jones in 1204, and 1229, and a record of his marriage in 1197, a record concerning him might be written as "John Jones (fl. 1197–1229)".

The term is often used in art history when dating the career of an artist. In this context, it denotes the period of the individual's artistic activity.[5]

In some cases, it can be replaced by the words "active between [date] and [date]", depending on context and if space or style permits.

See also

References
  1. "floruit". Oxford English Living Dictionaries: English. Oxford University Press. 2017. Retrieved 26 November 2017.
  2. flo·ru·it. American Heritage Dictionary (5th [online] ed.). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2017 [2011]. Retrieved 26 November 2017.
  3. Cassell's Latin Dictionary
  4. Adeleye, Gabriel; Kofi Acquah-Dadzie; Thomas J. Sienkewicz; James T. McDonough (1999). World Dictionary of Foreign Expressions: a Resource for Readers and Writers. Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers. p. 147. ISBN 0-86516-423-1. Retrieved 1 June 2010. fata morgana Morgan.
  5. Johnson, W. McAllister (1990), Art History: Its Use and Abuse, University of Toronto Press, p. 307, ISBN 0-86516-423-1, retrieved 1 June 2010
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