exhalatio

Forms

exhālātiō f (genitive exhālātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin exhālō + -tiō.^[2][1] The verb is formed from ex- and hālō (“to breathe”),^[2] which goes back to Proto-Italic *anaslāje- (“to breathe”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂enh₁-slo- (“a breathing”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero has it in the Tusculan Disputations in the plural, exhalationes terrae, “exhalations of the earth”.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

Seneca and Pliny the Elder use it for vapours rising from the earth or water, Pliny of a misty exhalation.^[4][5] Salvian uses it for the breathing out of the soul.^[5][6]

Medieval Latin, as in Albertus Magnus, used it for evaporation, breathing out, secretion and the escape of a substance, and for the vapour itself;^[7] it was sometimes confused with exaltatio.^[7] English borrowed it in the late 14th century as exhalation.^[8]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero writes of exhalations of the earth.^[4][5]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca writes of earthly exhalations.^[4][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder writes of a misty exhalation.^[5]
• 435/439 AD – Salvian uses it of the breathing out of the soul.^[5][6]
• late 14th century – English borrows it as exhalation.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A vapour, exhalation.^[2][4]
2. (Late Latin) A breathing out.^[5][6]
3. (Medieval Latin) Evaporation; secretion.^[7][1]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com