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Original · left

Flush (rinse or blush)

Rinsing out a toilet bowl with a rush of water, or skin turning pink from heat or embarrassment.

First in use: the 1500s
Duplicate · right

Flush (buffer)

Forcing temporary data held in an intermediate volatile memory buffer to commit permanently to disk storage.

First in use: the 1960s

Flush / Flush (rinse or blush) / Flush (buffer)

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Canonical todayMeasuring…
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Duplicate share · 12 mo—
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Colour keyGrey · original meaningGreen · duplicate meaningAmber · contested (40–60%)How colours work

Toilets vs. fsync.

Which meaning of Flush is the original, and which one is the duplicate riding on its name? Flush (rinse or blush) came first (the 1500s). Flush (buffer) arrived in the 1960s. The data below shows which one owns the word now.

Wikipedia pageviews since 2015

Flush (rinse or blush)Flush (buffer)
English Wikipedia pageviews since July 2015 load here.

Duplicate's share of attention

Green line = duplicate's % · above 60 it owns the word · below 40 the original does

Share-of-attention line loads here.

The case for each meaning

Sourced definitions, usage stats and quotes

Original · the 1500s

Flush (rinse or blush)

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Duplicate · the 1960s

Flush (buffer)

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More duplicated terms

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