From Latin flÅ«ctuÄns, flÅ«ctuant- , present participle of flÅ«ctuÄre, to fluctuate; see fluctuate. adjective. 1  Subject to change or variation: variable: fluctuant oil prices. 2  Medicine Capable of being moved or compressed.3  Used of an abnormal mass such as a tumor or abscess. 4  Moving in waves.djective. 1  Subject to change or variation: variable: fluctuant oil prices. 2  Medicine Capable of being moved or compressed. 3  Moving in waves.
Like Gulf Oil, Texaco was founded in 1901 after a major oil strike at Spindletop near Beaumont, Texas. The company was officially incorporated as The Texas Company in 1902 and the word Texaco was first used as a brand (for asphalt, not gasoline) in 1903.
Food Machinery Corporation (FMC) was founded in nearby Los Gatos as the Bean Spray Pump Company in 1884 and moved to San Jose in 1903. In 1941 the company received an order from the United States War Department for one thousand LVTs, bringing defense contracts to San Jose for the first time.