noun
“a divine imparting of knowledge or power : INSPIRATION” – Merriam-Webster dictionary
The word was encountered in “A Literary Visitor Strolls in From the Airport” by Charles Mcgrath
The sentence it was used was “There!” he said. “There’s the interface!” A little later, after pausing briefly near the Utica Avenue intersection to inspect, in vain, a curbside book table for Will Self titles, he caught a whiff of subway. “Ah,” he said. “The afflatus of the city’s bowels — now we’re getting into the real body of the city.”
The author utilizes this word to try to say that where they were trying to say where they were wasn’t what New York is known for. But since now they smell the subways and are going near a big avenue filled with people they are going to the body of the body which bowels is defined as “the parts deep inside something large.” Afflatus is the word used to say that they now know that they are in the city’s “core” and that they are in the “body of the city” which means what New York really is known for.
