Pi Day reveals origins of pi symbol
Everyone knows about pi, the world’s most famous irrational number. And just as recognizable is the pi symbol: 𝝅. But how did that symbol come…
→ Continue Readingcolumn
Past Tense
Influence: A Word That Moves the World
By Ewandro Magalhães
I
n an industry now devoting an entire issue of MultiLingual to “influencers,” it is worth pausing on the word itself. What is influence? And what do we mean when we translate it? Etymologically, “influence” comes from the Latin influentia, a flowing in. In medieval cosmology, it referred to an invisible fluid emanating from the stars, shaping human destiny. The French influence, the Spanish influencia, the Portuguese influência all preserve this sense of something subtle yet pervasive. In Arabic, تأثير (ta’thīr) suggests an effect, a trace left behind. In Persian, تأثیر (ta’sir) carries a similar meaning. In Mandarin Chinese, 影响 (yingxiang) combines the characters for “shadow” and “echo”: influence as something that casts and reverberates. Before it became a LinkedIn aspiration, influence was cosmological.
Advertisement
From Stars to Social Feeds
Over time, influence migrated from the heavens to human affairs. We speak of the influence of teachers, books, leaders, institutions. In the 21st century, it has been quantified, monetized, and algorithmically ranked. “Influencer” now describes someone who commands attention and can shape purchasing decisions or opinions through digital presence.
Yet language reveals nuance. An influencer is not quite the same as a trendsetter or a thought leader. A trendsetter initiates aesthetic or behavioral shifts (the first to wear, say, a new style). A thought leader — a term popular in corporate English — implies intellectual authority and conceptual originality. Influence, however, is broader and morally neutral. One can influence silently, unintentionally, even irresponsibly.
Many languages resist the recent semantic narrowing of “influencer.” In French, influenceur has entered common usage, but often with a faintly ironic undertone. In German, Influencer is borrowed wholesale from English, signaling its foreign, digital-native origins. In Portuguese, influenciador exists, yet still feels tethered to social media. The linguistic borrowing mirrors a cultural one: the exportation of an Anglo-digital model of visibility.
Influence in Translation History
The translation profession has long wrestled with influence, both exerted and endured.
Consider Saint Jerome’s Letter to Pammachius, written in the fourth century after he was accused of recklessness in translating the Scriptures. Jerome defended his approach, articulating what would become one of the foundational debates of translation studies: verbum ad verbum (word-for-word) versus sensus pro sensu (sense-for-sense). His letter influenced centuries of theological and translational thought. Here, influence operated not through metrics, but through argument and intellectual courage.
Centuries later, the Nuremberg Trials marked a watershed moment in simultaneous interpretation. Faced with the practical and ethical demands of multilingual justice, interpreters innovated under pressure. The event influenced not only the development of equipment and technique but also the professionalization of conference interpreting. Influence here was institutional and procedural, embedded in practice rather than proclamation.
In both cases, influence emerged from crisis, criticism, and necessity. It was not self-declared.
Beyond Human Agency
Returning to the word’s origins reminds us that influence is not solely human-to-human. We are influenced by climate, geography, and biology. The tides respond to lunar influence; crops respond to temperature; languages themselves are influenced by migration, conquest, trade.
Astrological traditions, whether in Hellenistic, Indian, or Chinese systems, conceptualize influence as celestial imprint. Whether one believes in birth signs or not, the vocabulary persists. To be “under the influence” still carries an echo of something external acting upon us.
Language encodes these gradations. In English, influence can be positive (“a good influence”), negative (“a corrupting influence”), or neutral (“a major influence on policy”). In Spanish, influencia nefasta leaves no ambiguity. In Japanese, 影響 (eikyō) can be beneficial or harmful depending on context. The word itself is ethically flexible; the evaluation comes from modifiers.
Advertisement
The Responsibility of Linguistic Influence
In the age of social media, influence has become performative. Visibility often precedes substance. Yet in translation and localization, influence remains quieter and arguably more profound.
When a term is standardized across markets, when inclusive language policies are adopted, when a machine translation engine shifts industry workflows, influence is at work. It may not trend, but it transforms.
As language professionals, we participate in a constant exchange of influence. We are influenced by source texts, by clients, by cultural norms. In turn, we influence how ideas circulate across borders. A single lexical choice can shape public perception. A mistranslation can inflame tensions; a sensitive rendering can foster understanding.
The cosmological metaphor still applies. Influence flows. It is often invisible. It can nourish or distort. It can be benign, catalytic, or destructive.
Perhaps the question for our industry is not who has influence, but how we conceptualize and steward it. Are we merely amplifying signals within algorithms, or are we shaping discourse across cultures with deliberation and care?
In the end, influence is less about follower counts and more about resonance. In Mandarin, remember, it is shadow and echo. In Latin, it is a flowing in. In our field, it is the quiet current that carries meaning from one linguistic shore to another, leaving its trace long after the metrics have faded.
Ewandro Magalhães is a conference interpreter, former chief interpreter in the United Nations system, interpreter trainer, and language technology advocate. He is a TEDx speaker and the author of three books, including The Language Game.
Advertisement
Related Articles
A History of Localization: From Manual Beginnings to an Automated Future
This article explores the evolution of localization, from its humble beginnings to the highly automated systems of today, while also speculating on how it will…
→ Continue ReadingHoliday Etymology: It’s the most wonderful time of the year!
As language enthusiasts, we also think it’s fascinating to look at the etymology of the names for these celebrations — here are the origins of…
→ Continue Reading