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inhalo

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word inhalo

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
81–43 BC Cicero More words from the 1st century BC
Ultimate origin
Latin hālō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin hālō
Latin inhālō
English inhale
Derivations
From the same root
Latin exhālō ← hālō
Latin hālitus ← hālō

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪˈnaː.ɫoː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [iˈnaː.lo][1]

Forms

inhālō (present infinitive inhālāre, perfect active inhālāvī, supine inhālātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin in- + hālō (“to breathe”), “to breathe on”.[2][1][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it once in Cicero and otherwise only from Apuleius and Tertullian on, never in the poets.[4] In Cicero's speech against Piso it means to breathe something out over someone: Piso, with his foul mouth, had breathed the reek of a cookshop over the speaker.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Apuleius used it of breathing on objects as a magical act,[2][5] and Lactantius of breathing upon wax.[5][6] Ambrose has it intransitively of gardens fragrant with flowers,[5][6] and also of breathing grace into the mind.[4] Christian writers such as Salvian used it of the devil breathing out pestilence or of people breathing filth on one another.[4]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of breathing a cookshop smell over someone.[2][7]
  • c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it of breathing on things in a magical rite.[2][7]
  • c. 250–317 AD – Lactantius uses it of breathing upon wax.[5][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To breathe out (a smell or vapour) over someone, with the dative of the person.[2][8]
  2. To breathe on something, especially as a magical act.[2][5]
  3. (intransitive) To breathe upon; to give off a scent.[5][6]
  4. (Late Latin, figurative) To breathe (grace, life) into.[4]

Word family

  • inhālātus

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
  4. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  8. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
Cite this entry

“Inhalo.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/la/inhalo. Accessed 8 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·