Those among you who have an ear for languages — or music, as the two seem to go hand in hand — probably haven’t failed to recognize how this week’s word,influenza (een-floo-ehn-zah) sounds a lot like the English “influence” of which is, in fact, the Italian translation. 

Influenzacan mean just that, something that can affect the way something happens or a person behaves, just like in the  sentence nella tua tesi, vedo chiaramente l’influenza degli studi classici che hai fatto (I clearly see the  influence of your classical background in your thesis), or la cucina Siciliana ha una chiara influenza Araba (Sicilian cuisine has a clear Arabic influence).