exhalo

Forms

exhālō (present infinitive exhālāre, perfect active exhālāvī, supine exhālātum); first conjugation^[1] It is often written exālō, without the h.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- + hālō (“to breathe”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan follows Schrijver in taking hālō as an early denominative of Proto-Italic *anaslo- (“breath”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂enh₁-slo- (“a breathing”), with the ⟨h-⟩ added as a sound-painting element or by hypercorrection.^[4] He compares Sanskrit अनिति (ániti, “breathes”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Pacuvius,^[4] whose tragedy has the earth breathing out a vapour.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to breathe out or give off fumes and vapours: Lucretius has lakes exhaling mist, Virgil and Ovid mist and smoke, Pliny the Elder darkness and deadly vapours.^[5][2] Varro uses it of hoar frost made to evaporate before the sheep are driven to pasture.^[2] Of persons it is to breathe or belch out, and with vītam or animam to breathe out one's life, to die, as in Virgil's king breathing out his life.^[2][5] English borrowed exhale about 1400, from Old French and directly from Latin, first of liquids, perfumes and the breath of life.^[6]

Timeline

• 220–130 BC – Pacuvius of the earth breathing out vapour.^[2][4][7]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of frost evaporating.^[2][7]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of lakes exhaling mist.^[5][7]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of breathing out one's life.^[2][7]
• c. 1400 – English exhale borrowed from Old French and Latin.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To exhale, give off (fumes, vapours); of persons, to breathe or belch out.^[2][5][1]
2. To cause to evaporate.^[2]
3. vītam or animam exhālāre: to breathe one's last, expire.^[2][5]

Word family

• exhālātiō

Related words

• hālō
• hālitus
• English exhale

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 k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de