aspirate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin aspīrātus (“breathed upon”), the past participle of aspīrō (“to breathe upon”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} which is formed from ad- (“to”) and spīrō (“to breathe”).^[7][8] The OED compares the adjective with French aspiré.^[2] The verb is from the same Latin participle,^[2][4][6] and the OED compares French aspirer;^[2] Barnhart thinks it was probably borrowed under the influence of the French verb, used of pronunciation from 1529,^[9] and Etymonline and Barnhart also allow that it may be a back-formation from aspiration, which Barnhart notes was used of pronunciation in Middle English, probably before 1398.^[8][9] The Latin verb is also the source of aspire.^[2][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pronounced with an audible breath: Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the adjective to 1555,^[3] and the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English to the mid 16th century.^[4][5] The OED's first quotation is from Holder's Elements of Speech (1669),^[2] which Johnson also quoted.^[10]

Semantic evolution

All the early senses belong to phonetics.^[2][4] As a noun the word meant the sound of h, especially an initial h dropped or added in nonstandard speech (1725, in Pope),^[2] and a consonant pronounced with a marked breath (1728, in Chambers's Cyclopædia);^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the noun to 1617.^[3] The verb is first recorded in Dryden's dedication to his translation of Virgil (1697): "our w and h aspirate".^[2][4][10] Johnson (1755) explained the transitive verb with the example "as we aspirate horse, house, and hog".^[10] In the late 19th century, after aspiration and aspirator, the verb was taken into medicine for drawing off fluid from the body by suction (1872), for drawing a gas out of a vessel (1880) and for inhaling a liquid or object into the lungs (1897),^[2] and the noun for a sample of fluid drawn off in this way (1921).^[2] Collins also records the sense of supplying air to an internal-combustion engine.^[11]

Timeline

• 1555 – adjective, pronounced with an audible breath.^[3] The OED's first quotation is from 1669.^[2]
• 1617 – noun, the sound of h or a character representing it.^[3] The OED's first quotation is from Pope in 1725.^[2]
• 1697 – verb, to pronounce with an audible breath, in Dryden.^[2][9] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the verb to about 1700.^[3]
• 1728 – noun, a consonant pronounced with a marked breath.^[2]
• 1872 – verb, in medicine, to remove fluid from the body by suction.^[2]
• 1880 – verb, to draw a gas or vapour out of a vessel.^[2]
• 1897 – verb, in medicine, to inhale a liquid or object into the lungs.^[2]
• 1921 – noun, a sample of fluid or tissue removed by suction.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (phonetics) To pronounce a stop consonant with an audible puff of breath as it is released.^[11][3][2]
2. (phonetics) To pronounce a word or vowel with an initial h sound.^[11][3][2]
3. (medicine) To draw out fluid or tissue from the body by suction: The surgeon aspirated fluid from the knee joint.^[11][3][2]
4. (medicine) To inhale a liquid or object into the airways or lungs.^[11][2]
5. To draw in by suction, as of air into an internal-combustion engine.^[11][3]

Noun

1. (phonetics) The sound h, or a character that represents it, such as the letter h or the Greek rough breathing.^[3][2]
2. (phonetics) A consonant released with an audible breath.^[3][11][2]
3. (medicine) Material removed from the body by aspiration.^[3][2]

Adjective

1. (phonetics) Pronounced with an audible breath; aspirated.^[3][2][10]
2. Of h in modern French: silent, but blocking liaison and elision.^[3]

Related words

• aspire
• aspiration
• aspirator
• nonaspirate
• spirit
• inspire
• respire

Usage notes

The OED notes that some writers altered the word to asperate, mistakenly deriving it from the Latin phrase spiritus asper.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b c d Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins