breathe

Pronunciation

• IPA: /bɹiːð/; /bɹið/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English brethen, formed from the noun breath.^[2][3][4][5] It is not found in Old English, but it keeps the original long vowel of the Old English noun bræþ.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To breathe in and out; to inhale a scent: about 1200 in Etymonline.^[2] The OED's first sense, to exhale or steam, is from before 1300 and is now obsolete.^[6]

Semantic evolution

To emit an odour is from about 1400, and figuratively to be redolent of something from 1697.^[6] To exhale air from the lungs is from 1398, and to breathe in and out, the ordinary current sense, from 1377.^[6] To be alive follows.^[7][8] To breathe one's last, to die, is from the 1590s,^[2] and to breathe down someone's neck is by 1946.^[2] In Yorkshire and Lincolnshire dialect to breathe a horse was to give it time to recover its breath.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – to breathe.^[2]
• before 1300 – to exhale, steam (obsolete).^[6]
• 1377 – to inhale and exhale.^[6]
• 1590s – breathe one's last.^[2]
• 1946 – breathe down someone's neck.^[2]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To take air into the lungs and let it out again.
2. To be alive.
3. To say quietly; to whisper.
4. To pause to rest or recover one's breath.
5. Of a fabric or material, to allow air or moisture to pass through.
6. To instil or impart: breathe new life into.

Word family

• breathable
• breather
• fire-breathing
• inbreathe
• outbreathe
• unbreathed
• unbreathing
• breathing room

Related words

• breath
• breathless
• breathtaking

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)