- flood (n.)
- Old English flōd "a flowing of water, tide, an overflowing of land by water, a deluge, Noah's Flood; mass of water, river, sea, wave," from Proto-Germanic *floduz "flowing water, deluge" (source also of Old Frisian flod, Old Norse floð, Middle Dutch vloet, Dutch vloed, German Flut, Gothic flodus), from the source of Old English flowan, from PIE verbal root *pleu- "to flow, float, swim" (see pluvial). In early modern English often floud. Figurative use, "a great quantity, a sudden abundance," by mid-14c.
- flood (v.)
- 1660s, "to overflow" (transitive), from flood (n.). Intransitive sense "to rise in a flood" is from 1755. Related: Flooded; flooding.
