inflate

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English inflaten,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Latin īnflātus (“blown into, puffed up”),^[2][5][4][6] the past participle of īnflō (“to blow into, puff up”),^[2][5][6][7] formed from in- (“in, into”) and flō (“to blow”),^[7][3][5][8] according to Watkins from Proto-Indo-European *bhlē- (“to blow”),^[5][3] and is distantly related to blow.^[6] The Latin participle is also the source of Italian enfiare, Spanish inflar and French enfler.^[5] Barnhart traces the English verb through an earlier adjective inflate, probably from about 1350, and both he and Etymonline regard some uses as a back-formation from inflation.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To cause to swell: probably before 1425, in a translation of Chauliac's surgery, of a noxious vapour that inflateþ & vlcerateþ þe nere parties about.^[2][4] The OED dates the verb only from 1528 and the participial adjective from about 1504,^[7] and Dictionary.com from 1470–80.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The physical sense, filling with wind, was soon joined by a figurative one: to puff someone up with pride or high spirits, recorded in 1530.^[7] Johnson in 1755 defines the verb first as "to swell with wind" and "to fill with the breath".^[10] Ayto places the economic use of the verb and of inflation in 1830s America.^[6] The noun is recorded in this sense by 1838,^[5][4] the verb from 1843.^[7][5] Later still, the idea of swelling beyond proper limits was extended to exaggerating (1982) and to any rapid rise in size or number (1984).^[7]

Timeline

• before 1425 – to cause to swell, in a translation of Chauliac.^[2][4] The OED's first record for blowing out with air is from 1528.^[7]
• before 1475 – to blow into the ear.^[2]
• c. 1504 – adjective, puffed up; inflated.^[7]
• 1530 – to puff up a person with pride.^[7]
• before 1705 – to dilate or enlarge unduly.^[7]
• 1843 – to raise prices or currency beyond a sound level.^[7][5] Barnhart's first record is from 1844, in Emerson.^[4]
• 1982 – to exaggerate.^[7]
• 1984 – to rise in size or number, especially rapidly.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To fill something with air or gas so that it swells: He inflated the raft with a foot pump.^[11][3][12]
2. To become filled with air or gas: The life jacket inflates when it hits the water.^[11][12]
3. To puff someone up with pride; to elate: The prize inflated his sense of his own talent.^[11][3][12]
4. To make something seem bigger or more important than it is; to exaggerate: The firm inflated its sales figures.^[3][7]
5. In economics, to raise prices or increase the supply of money and credit, causing inflation.^[11][12][13]
6. To undergo economic inflation.^[11][12][13]

Adjective

1. (archaic) Inflated.^[12][7][13]

Word family

• inflator
• inflater
• disinflate
• hyperinflate
• inflatable
• inflated
• overinflate
• reflate

Related words

• inflation
• flatus
• deflate
• blow

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ 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 Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press