respiración

Forms

respiración f (plural respiraciones)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin rēspīrātiō (“breathing; a pause for breath”), a learned borrowing.^[2][1][3] The Latin noun is formed from respīrō (“to recover one's breath, breathe again”) with the suffix -tiō.^[4][1] The verb is made of re- (“back, again”) and spīrō (“to breathe”).^[1][4]

In Spanish the noun belongs with respirar, recorded from 1220–50, which Corominas also derives from the Latin verb.^[3] The same Latin noun gave Italian respirazione and French respiration.^[5]

De Vaan finds no direct cognates for the simple verb and suggests it may imitate the sound of breathing.^[6] Kroonen, as Wiktionary reports, connects it with Proto-Germanic *fīsaną (“to blow”), from a root Proto-Indo-European *(s)peys- (“to blow, breathe”), a link De Vaan does not accept.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Enrique de Villena's Arte de trovar of 1433, known from a 16th-century copy, where the vowels a, e and i are said to differ by menos respiraçión, “less breath”.^[7][3] At about the same time Alfonso de la Torre's Visión deleitable (c. 1430–1440) calls la respiraçión “the cause of the life of animals”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The word was at first a word of learned and medical prose: Nebrija's dictionary of about 1495 gives Latin respiratio and expiratio for it, and a 1498 translation of Guido de Cauliaco's surgery says that the breath that lacks respiracion is choked.^[7] The Diccionario de Autoridades defined it as the repeated passing of air out of an animal's body, and called it a Latin word.^[8]

The Academy's dictionary of 1899 gives the three senses the DLE still has: the act of breathing, the air breathed, and the free passage of air into and out of a closed room.^[9][2] The last sense is found early in the Americas: a document of 1636 from Potosí speaks of a hole left para respiración o humero, “for ventilation or as a chimney”.^[10] Modern biology and medicine use it for the exchange of gases of living beings and cells, and respiración artificial names the manoeuvres that restore breathing.^[2][11]

Timeline

• 1220–50 – first record of the verb respirar.^[3]
• c. 1430–1440 – Alfonso de la Torre's Visión deleitable uses respiraçión.^[7]
• 1433 – Enrique de Villena's Arte de trovar, the date Corominas gives.^[3][7]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija's Vocabulario gives Latin respiratio.^[7]
• 1571 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico City.^[10]
• 1737 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the word.^[8]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology and three senses.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of breathing (respirar); respiration: Después de la carrera, su respiración tardó en calmarse.^[2][1]
2. The air that is breathed in or out; breath.^[2][1]
3. The free passage of air into and out of a room or other closed place; ventilation.^[2][12]
4. (biology) The process by which living beings and their cells take in oxygen and give off carbon dioxide; in respiración celular, the reactions by which cells obtain energy.^[2][11]

Related words

• aspirar
• respirar
• transpirar
• respiratorio
• respiradero
• espíritu
• Latin respiratio

Usage notes

Respiración artificial is the set of manoeuvres used to restore breathing in someone who has stopped breathing;^[1] sin respiración “breathless” is a set phrase.^[2][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. respiración
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. espirar
4. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 661
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ 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. respiración
8. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 869
10. ^ a b 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. respiración
11. ^ a b Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. respiración
12. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. respiración