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spirare

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Etymology and origin of the Italian word spirare

spirare1 to blow; to emanate

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1250 before 1250, a poet of the Sicilian school
Borrowed from
Latin spiro
Etymology tree of spirare1
inherited borrowed derived
Latin spīrō
Italian spirare
From the same root · spirare1
English transpire ← spīrō
Latin aspīrō ← spīrō
Latin cōnspīrō ← spīrō
Latin exspīrō ← spīrō
Latin īnspīrō ← spīrō
Latin respīrō ← spīrō
Latin spīrāculum ← spīrō
Latin spīrāmentum ← spīrō
Latin spīritus ← spīrō
Latin suspīrō ← spīrō
Latin trānspīrō ← spīrō
Spanish espíritu ← spīrō
Spanish inspirar ← spīrō

Pronunciation

  • /spiˈra.re/[1]

Forms

spirare (first-person singular present spìro, first-person singular past historic spirài, past participle spiràto, auxiliary avére)[1]

Etymology

The word for “to blow, to breathe out” is borrowed from Latin spīrāre (“to blow; to breathe; to exhale”).[2][3][4] Nocentini classes it as a borrowing from Latin;[2][1] Wiktionary has it inherited.[2][1] The same verb is Spanish espirar.[2][5]

DELI, Nocentini and Devoto take the Latin verb as imitative of the sound of breath.[3][2][6] De Vaan also thinks it possibly onomatopoeic and finds no direct cognates; the Baltic and Slavic words for squeaking that look alike, and a Germanic stem for breaking wind, differ in meaning.[7] Wiktionary refers it to Proto-Indo-European *(s)peys-.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is before 1250, in a poet of the Sicilian school, in the sense “to breathe out, emanate”; the sense “to blow”, of wind, is in Dante's Commedia (1300–1313).[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Dante writes of sand whirling quando turbo spira, “when the whirlwind blows”, and of the swamp che 'l gran puzzo spira, “that breathes out the great stench”; in the Paradiso the heavens' power comes from the movers convien che spiri.[8][4] He also has the verb for inspiration, quando Amor mi spira, noto, “when Love inspires me, I note it down”.[3][9] Petrarch and Tasso use it for breathing and being alive: Io vivo? io spiro ancora?.[4][10]

In theology the verb names the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son.[11] In modern Italian it is mainly said of wind and, figuratively, of the mood in a place: non spira aria buona, “the air is not good”.[11][9] The participle spirante has been a term of phonetics since Ascoli (1870).[3]

Timeline

  • Before 1250 – a Sicilian poet uses spirare “to emanate”.[3][4]
  • Second half of the 13th century – spiro “breath” appears in the Libro di Sydrac.[3]
  • 1300–1313 – Dante uses it for the blowing of wind.[3]
  • Before 1321 – Dante uses it for “to inspire”.[3]
  • 1870 – Ascoli uses spirante for a fricative consonant.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. Of wind, to blow: stasera spira un vento fresco dal lago.[4][10][12]
  2. (figurative) Of a mood or situation, to be felt in a place: in casa spirava aria di festa.[4][10][9]
  3. Of a smell or a feeling, to come out and spread: dal giardino spirava un profumo di gelsomino.[4][12]
  4. (transitive, literary) To emanate, give off; to express: uno sguardo che spira fiducia.[4][11][9]
  5. (transitive, poetic) To inspire.[11][9][1]
  6. (archaic, literary) To breathe; to be alive.[4][10][1]

Word family

  • spiro
  • spirante
  • spirabile
  • spiramento
  • spirazione
  • spirometro

spirare2 to die; to expire

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1300s Guido delle Colonne in translation
Inherited from
Latin exspiro
Ultimate origin
Latin spīrō
Etymology tree of spirare2
inherited borrowed derived
Latin spīrō
Latin exspīrō
Italian spirare
From the same root · spirare2
English transpire ← spīrō
Latin aspīrō ← spīrō
Latin cōnspīrō ← spīrō
Latin īnspīrō ← spīrō
Latin respīrō ← spīrō
Latin spīrāculum ← spīrō
Latin spīrāmentum ← spīrō
Latin spīritus ← spīrō
Latin suspīrō ← spīrō
Latin trānspīrō ← spīrō
Spanish espíritu ← spīrō
Spanish inspirar ← spīrō
Latin exspīrātiō ← exspīrō

Pronunciation

  • /spiˈra.re/[1]

Forms

spirare (first-person singular present spìro, first-person singular past historic spirài, past participle spiràto, auxiliary èssere)[1]

Etymology

The word for “to die, breathe one's last” is inherited from Latin exspīrāre (“to breathe out; to die”), formed ex- (“out”) and spīrō (“to breathe”).[3][4][1] Nocentini calls it the popular outcome of the Latin verb in its sense of giving up the last breath, beside the learned espirare.[2] DEI and GDLI compare French expirer (12th century) and Spanish espirar.[13][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the 14th-century Italian translation of Guido delle Colonne, with the sense “to die, breathe one's last”.[3][2][4]

Semantic evolution

One of GDLI's quotations speaks of the moment che Cristo spirò nella croce, and Tasso of a dying warrior who singhiozza e spira, “sobs and dies”.[8] The sense “to come to an end, to lapse”, of a period of time, appears before 1348 in Giovanni Villani.[3] Tasso has the participle spirante “dying” in 1581.[3] The verb takes essere.[10][1]

Timeline

  • 14th century – the translated Guido delle Colonne uses spirare “to die”.[3]
  • Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani uses it for “to end, run out”.[3]
  • 1581 – Tasso uses spirante “dying”.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To die, breathe one's last: il nonno spirò circondato dai nipoti.[4][10][12]
  2. (uncommon) Of a term or deadline, to expire, run out: il contratto spira a fine mese.[4][10][9]

Usage notes

The first verb takes avere, the second essere.[11][1] GDLI also lists two minor homographs: spirare “to aspire”, shortened from aspirare, and spirare “to move in a spiral”, from spira.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  5. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  6. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  8. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  9. ^ a b c d e f Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  11. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  12. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  13. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Spirare.” Etymologically, 10 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/it/spirare. Accessed 10 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·