respirar

Forms

respirar (first-person singular present respiro, first-person singular preterite respiré, past participle respirado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish respirar, a learned word borrowed from Latin respīrō (“to breathe out; to recover one's breath”).^[2][3][4] Wiktionary calls it inherited.^[1] The Latin verb is formed re- (“back, again”) and spīrō (“to breathe, blow”).^[1][5][6] Corominas treats it with the other Spanish verbs taken from compounds of the same Latin verb: aspirar, conspirar, expirar, inspirar and suspirar, and the simple espirar.^[2]

The same Latin verb is Portuguese respirar, Catalan respirar, French respirer and Italian respirare.^[6][7][8] The French verb is recorded from about 1190, and Portuguese from the 14th century.^[8][7] The English word respire has the same source.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the verb 1220–1250, from Berceo.^[2][4] In Berceo's Duelo de la Virgen, at the death of Christ, los judíos mesquinos non podién respirar “the wretched Jews could not breathe”.^[9][10][11]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's Estoria de España uses the verb literally, of thirsty soldiers who drank without stopping to breathe.^[12] Nebrija in 1495 gave Latin respiro and expiro.^[13] Covarrubias in 1611 added the figurative sense “to rest, to take some recreation”.^[14] Cervantes uses it in the Quijote for living and breathing in someone.^[15]

The Autoridades (1737) defines it as letting out the breath by which one lives, and metaphorically as resting, being relieved of work or freed from oppression; with con it meant to find relief.^[16] The Academy's 1884 dictionary gives the physiological definition still in use, and adds the senses “to give off a smell”, “to take heart”, “of a fluid, to have an outlet to the air” and, colloquially and mostly with a negative, “to speak”.^[17] The transitive sense, to show a quality or mood openly, is in the modern dictionary.^[3] An American record of 1716 from Guatemala already speaks of someone respirando corajes “breathing rage”.^[18]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – Berceo's Duelo de la Virgen.^[2][9]
• 1270–1284 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España.^[12]
• 1433 – first record of respiración.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin respiro;^[13] respiradero and respiratorio are first recorded the same year.^[13][2]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the sense “to rest”.^[14]
• 1614 – the first record from the Americas, in Chile, of the south wind that respira.^[18]
• 1737 – the Autoridades gives the literal and the metaphorical sense.^[16]
• 1832 – first record of the noun respiro.^[2]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the physiological definition.^[17]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, also transitive) To breathe: of a living being, to take in air through lungs, gills or tracheae and give it out again changed.^[3][1]
2. (intransitive) To give off a smell.^[3][17]
3. (intransitive) To take heart.^[3]
4. (intransitive) Of an enclosed fluid: to have an outlet to the open air.^[3]
5. (intransitive) To rest; to be relieved of work, heat, oppression or a difficulty: Por fin respiro, ya acabé los exámenes.^[3][14]
6. (intransitive) To enjoy cooler air when it is very hot.^[3]
7. (intransitive) To give news of oneself, in writing or in speech.^[3]
8. (intransitive, colloquial, mostly negative) To say a word: Pablo no respiró en toda la cena.^[3][17]
9. (transitive) Of a person or thing: to show a quality or state openly: La casa respira tranquilidad.^[3]

Word family

• respiradero
• respiro
• respirable

Related words

• respiración
• respiratorio
• espirar
• aspirar
• inspirar
• suspirar
• espíritu
• Latin respīrō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 j k 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. respirar
4. ^ 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. respirar
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 661
7. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. respirar
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. respirar
10. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. s.v. respirar
11. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. respirar
12. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. respirar
13. ^ a b c Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 409
14. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1261
15. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 972
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 597
17. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 927
18. ^ 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. respirar