Floruit abbreviated
fl. (or occasionally
flor.), is a
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
verb meaning "flourished", denoting the period of time during which something (such as a person, school, movement, or species) was active. In
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, the word is also occasionally used as a
nounIn linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
indicating the timeframe in which someone "flourished".
Broadly, the term is employed in reference to the peak of activity for a person, movement, etc. More specifically, it is often used in
genealogyGenealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...
and
historicalHistory is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
writing when a person's birth or death dates are unknown, but some other evidence exists that indicates when he or she was alive. For example, if there are wills attested by John Jones in 1204, 1207 and 1229, and a record of his marriage in 1197, a record concerning him might be written as "John Jones (fl. 1197–1229)". It is used in
art historyArt history has historically been understood as the academic study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts, i.e. genre, design, format, and style...
when dating the career of an artist. In this context, it specifically denotes the period of the individual's artistic activity, not just the known existence of the artist.