Etymologically
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aspire

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /əˈspaɪə(ɹ)/[1]
  • US: /əˈspaɪɚ/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English aspiren,[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French aspirer (“to aspire to; to inspire; to breathe”),[3][5][6] or directly borrowed from Latin aspīrō (“to breathe upon; to seek to reach”),[7][2][8][4] also spelt adspīrō;[7][5] the OED gives the Latin verb as the main source and the French one only with a query.[7] The Latin verb is formed from ad- (“to, at”) and spīrō (“to breathe”),[7][3][8][9] the source of spirit.[3][5][6] Etymonline explains the sense as "panting with desire", or perhaps as rising smoke.[3] The Anglo-Norman verb, recorded from 1121–25, already had both the senses "to breathe" and "to aspire to, hope to achieve", and the OED notes that the Old French verb was probably partly a form of enspirer, from inspīrō.[10][7] The later sense "to rise up" was influenced by spire.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

To strive for something, with to: in the Middle English Orologium Sapientiae (a manuscript of about 1450 of a text from before 1400), of a man who sought worldly advancement and honours more than he should.[2] Etymonline dates the word to about 1400 and Barnhart to before 1400;[3][5] the OED's first record is from about 1460, in Fortescue's Governance of England.[7]

Semantic evolution

The sense of longing and ambition, with to or an infinitive, has been the main one from the start;[7][2] aspire after and aspire at follow in 1606, and the transitive "to long for something" was used from 1596 (in Spenser) to 1816.[7] Under the influence of spire, from 1591, again in Spenser, the verb also meant to rise or tower up, and figuratively to climb towards something high (1585).[7][9] The literal Latin sense, "to breathe into or out", was rare in English: the OED records the transitive use only from 1532 to 1633.[7][3] Johnson (1755) defined it as to desire eagerly, "to pant after something higher", with to or after, and as "to rise; to tower".[11] Shakespeare is the first to use the noun aspiration for an earnest desire, in Troilus and Cressida (1606).[5]

Timeline

  • c. 1400 – to strive for something, with to.[2][3][5]
  • 1532 – to breathe something into another (obsolete by 1633).[7]
  • 1562 – the noun aspire, aspiration (obsolete by 1668).[7]
  • 1585 – figuratively, to rise towards something high.[7]
  • 1591 – to rise or tower upwards.[7]
  • 1596 – transitive, to long for something (obsolete by 1816).[7]
  • 1606 – aspire after, aspire at.[7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To have a strong ambition or desire to reach or achieve something, usually with to or an infinitive: She aspired to a seat on the city council.[4][12][7]
  2. To rise to a great height; to soar or tower.[12][7][11]
  3. (obsolete, 1596–1816) To long for or aim at something, with a direct object.[7][8]

Word family

  • aspirer
  • aspiringly

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  11. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins