inspirar

Forms

inspirar (first-person singular present inspiro, first-person singular preterite inspiré, past participle inspirado)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin īnspīrō (“to blow into; to breathe into, inspire”), a learned word.^[2][3][1] The verb is formed from Latin in- + spīrō (“to breathe”).^[4][1] The BDELC treats it with the other learned compounds of the same verb, aspirar, conspirar, expirar, respirar and suspirar, under espirar.^[2]

Its cognates are the learned Portuguese inspirar, Catalan inspirar, French inspirer and Italian inspirare.^[5][6][7][1] The French verb is recorded at the end of the 12th century, as Old French enspirer.^[7] In Medieval Latin the verb had taken the religious sense “to inspire”.^[8]

De Vaan finds no direct cognates of spīrō and thinks it may be an imitation of the sound of breathing.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest hit in the CDH, in the Crónica de Sahagún (dated c. 1255), survives only in later copies.^[10] The first safe record is a translation of the Historia de Jerusalem abreviada of Jacobo de Vitriaco (after 1350), in the religious sense: God inspiró a un pobre religioso “inspired a poor monk”.^[10] DICCA-XV lists 1350 for the CORDE and 1490 for the DCECH.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The religious sense, God moving the mind or will of someone, came first, and in the 14th and 15th centuries the verb was also used of God breathing a soul into Adam.^[10] Covarrubias in 1611 gives the literal sense “to infuse spirit or air”, but says it was mostly used for awakening the spirit to holy thoughts.^[12] The Autoridades of 1734 defines it first as an intransitive verb “to blow gently”, of soft winds, and then as giving divine light or a supernatural movement of the soul.^[13]

The Academy's dictionary of 1884 put the physiological sense “to breathe in” first and added the figurative senses “to arouse feelings or ideas” and “to suggest ideas for a literary or artistic work”.^[14] The DLE also has the reflexive “to find inspiration in” and the old journalistic sense “to give instructions to the writers of a newspaper”.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1255 – the Crónica de Sahagún (in later copies).^[10]
• after 1350 – a translation of the Historia de Jerusalem abreviada uses inspiró of God.^[10]
• 1379–1384 – Fernández de Heredia's translation of Plutarch.^[10]
• 1490 – Alfonso de Palencia, the first record in the BDELC.^[2]
• 1492 – Nebrija's Latin–Spanish dictionary glosses inspiro as inspirar.^[11]
• 1575 – the popular form inespirar in Mexico.^[15]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the religious sense and inspiración divina.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy gives “to breathe in” as the first sense.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. To inhale, draw air into the lungs; also used without an object.^[3][1]
2. To arouse or instil feelings, ideas or plans in someone's mind: Su calma me inspiró confianza.^[3][1]
3. To suggest ideas or themes for a literary or artistic work.^[3]
4. To give instructions to those who run or write for a newspaper.^[3]
5. (religion) Of God: to enlighten (iluminar) someone's mind and move their will.^[3]
6. (reflexive) To find inspiration in someone or something for one's own work.^[3]
7. (reflexive) Of a work: to take something or someone as its model.^[3]

Word family

• inspirador

Related words

• espirar
• inspiración
• respirar
• Latin īnspīrō
• French inspirer

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. espirar
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. inspirar
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 1902
6. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. inspirar
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. inspirar
11. ^ a b Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. inspirar
12. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1048
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 282
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 602
15. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. inespirar