aspirer

Forms

aspirer^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin aspīrō (“to breathe upon, blow towards”), borrowed about 1120,^[2][1] from ad- and spīrō (“to breathe”), the verb behind respirer and esprit.^[2][3][4] The Grand Robert dates it to about 1165 and the GLLF to 1160 (Benoît de Sainte-Maure).^[3][5] Cognate with Old Occitan aspirar, Spanish aspirar and Italian aspirare.^[4]

Littré discusses the grammatical sense: because a sound is uttered on the outgoing breath, some held that the verb here stood for aspérer (“to make rough”), after Latin asper, the name of the Greek rough breathing; he finds no example of this and thinks the sense came from calling breath what the Greeks and Romans called “spirit”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first sense, from the language of the Church, was “to inspire”, of God: Benoît's Chronique des ducs de Normandie has Si cum Deus les out aspirez “as God had inspired them”.^[4][6][2] The Anglo-Norman Dictionary records it from 1121–25, meaning “to breathe”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Besides “to inspire”, said also of love and the Muses, it meant “to give the breath of life” (12th–16th centuries) and “to blow”, a sense that lasted until the 16th century.^[2][3] From 1262–68 it meant “to breathe”, extended to “blow”, “sigh” and “utter”, the source of the h aspiré of grammar.^[2][3] At the end of the 14th century it took the sense “to draw air into the lungs”, the counterpart of expirer, which alone has stayed in use with its figurative values.^[2][6]

Aspirer à (1350) “to long for”, a figurative use from the image of inspiration, was very common in the 17th century and is now literary.^[2][6] Drawing up a liquid by suction is also an old use (aspirer la fumée de l'eaue, 14th century).^[4][6] The household sense, of a vacuum cleaner, is found in 1904 for dust that is aspirée and in Larousse in 1922.^[8]

The English word aspire (about 1400) was taken from Old French aspirer.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1120 – First record.^[2]
• 1160 – Benoît de Sainte-Maure uses it for divine inspiration.^[5][4]
• 1262–68 – It means “to breathe”.^[2][3]
• 1350 – Aspirer à “to long for” appears.^[2]
• 1393 – It is used for drawing something in.^[10]
• 1529 – Geoffroy Tory uses it of pronouncing a sound with breath.^[5]
• 1904 – A household text says dust is aspirée by the new vacuum cleaning.^[8]
• 1922 – Larousse records the vacuum-cleaner sense.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, with à) To aspire to, long for, set one's desires on: il aspire à une vie plus calme.^[10][1][4]
2. (phonetics) To pronounce a sound with an audible breath; to aspirate.^[10][1][4]
3. To draw air or a smell into the lungs; to inhale: aspirer l'air frais du matin.^[11][4][5]
4. To draw up a liquid or a fluid by creating a vide; to suck up: la pompe aspire l'huile.^[4][5][11]
5. To pick up dust with a vacuum cleaner.^[8][5]

Word family

• aspirant
• aspirateur

Related words

• aspiration
• expiration
• expirer
• inspiration
• inspirer
• respiration
• respirer
• Latin aspīrō
• English aspire

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
5. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ a b c d Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
9. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ a b Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard