Word of the day: afflatus

The word of the day is afflatus:

< Latin afflātus a breathing upon, blast, < afflā-re: see afflate v.

 

1. Breathing, hissing.  [ < Latin afflātus serpentis.] Obs.   

2. The miraculous communication of supernatural knowledge; hence also, the imparting of an over-mastering impulse, poetic or otherwise; inspiration. 

3. Med. A species of erysipelas, so called from the suddenness of its attack. Mayne Exp. Lex. (OED)

"It certainly doesn't know how to end; after two hours, I could have done without SeanPenn, dressed in Armani, kneeling on a beach, while the other characters mooch around like unwanted extras from 'Zabriskie Point.'  Afflatus has an unhappy habit, as Malick has proved before, of subsiding into a monotone."

 - Anthony Lane, "Time trip: Terrence Malick's 'The Tree of Life'", 30 May 2011 The New Yorker


No, I'm still not sure what he means.