respire

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English respiren,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French respirer,^[2][3][5][6] and directly borrowed from Latin respīrō (“to breathe again, recover one's breath”),^[7][3][5][2] from re- (“again”) and spīrō (“to breathe”).^[7][3][5] The French verb is recorded in the sense "return to life" in the late 12th century and "breathe" in the early 13th,^[7] and Barnhart calls it a learned borrowing from Latin.^[5] Anglo-Norman had it from the early 14th century.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

To come up for air, breathe again: about 1385, in Usk's Testament of Love, which the OED cites from the printed text of 1532.^[7][5] The general meaning "breathe" appears before about 1425, in the Orcherd of Syon: I made..þe eyr, by þe which ȝe mowe respire and breþe.^[2][7][5] Etymonline dates the verb to the late 14th century,^[3] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged to the 15th.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The Latin verb already spanned recovering one's breath, pausing, breathing out and giving off a vapour,^[7] and the Middle English verb could already mean to breathe, of a smell to pass out, of the wind to blow, and to rest or recover hope.^[2] Rest and relief after exertion, which Etymonline dates to the 1590s,^[3] are the third sense in Johnson (1755), after "to breathe" and "to catch breath".^[10] The smell and wind senses faded: "be given off" lasted to 1754,^[7] and the wind sense is now rare and literary.^[7] The newest use comes from biology: to absorb oxygen and give out carbon dioxide (1894),^[7] and then to use a substance as a substrate for the chemical process of respiration (1914).^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1385 – to come up for air.^[7][5]
• c. 1425 – to breathe, intransitive and transitive.^[7][5]
• c. 1425 – of a smell or vapour, to be given off (to 1754).^[7]
• c. 1475 – of the wind, to blow.^[7]
• 1577 – to emit, give out (to 1840).^[7]
• 1590s – to rest after toil.^[3]
• 1619 – to draw breath, to live (to 1773).^[7]
• 1894 – in biology, to absorb oxygen and give out carbon dioxide.^[7]
• 1914 – in biology, to use a substance in respiration.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To breathe; to take air into the lungs and let it out again.^[11][9][7]
2. (biology) Of a cell, tissue or organism, to take up oxygen and give out carbon dioxide.^[11][9][7]
3. (biology) To use a substance in the chemical process of respiration: Yeast cells respire sugar.^[7]
4. (literary) To breathe easily again after strain; to have a respite or recover hope.^[11][9][12]
5. (rare, literary) Of the wind, to blow.^[7][9][12]
6. (obsolete, 1577–1840) To give off or emit.^[7][12]

Word family

• respirometer
• respirometry
• unrespired
• respirable
• respiratory

Related words

• respiration
• respirator
• spirit
• aspire
• conspire
• expire
• inspire

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
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 Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press