respiratio

Forms

respīrātiō f (genitive respīrātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin respīrō (“to breathe out, recover one's breath”) + -tiō, a noun of action.^[2][1] The verb is formed from re- and spīrō (“to breathe”).^[3] De Vaan takes the simple verb to be possibly an imitation of the sound of breathing, with no direct cognates; the Balto-Slavic words for squeaking that have been compared with it are similar in shape but differ in meaning, and may have arisen within Balto-Slavic.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Cicero (81–43 BC),^[4] who in his Timaeus uses it of breathing: the world had no air around its outer edges and so needed no respiratio.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it meant breathing,^[2][5] and also the recovering of breath after it had been held: Seneca hears the hissing gasps of those who let out a breath they had kept in.^[2] From this came a pause for breath during exertion: in Livy soldiers fight sine respiratione, without a pause.^[2][5][6] Cicero applies it to the pauses of a speaker, where one stops to draw breath,^[5][6] and Quintilian uses it in his rules on delivery.^[5] By transfer it was the exhalation of vapour from water.^[2][5] Tertullian uses it of the bones of the dead coming back to life.^[7]

In medieval Latin it was a medical and natural-philosophical word for breathing and the movement of air, and grammarians used it for the rough and smooth breathings of Greek.^[8] In music it was the place in a chant where the singer takes breath, a caesura, a sense found from Guido's Micrologus on.^[9] A Portuguese law uses it for a breathing space, relief after a victory over the Moors.^[10] English took it over as respiration,^[11] and Italian has respirazione from it.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of breathing, of the exhalation of water and of pauses in speaking.^[2][5][4]
• 59 BC–AD 17 – Livy uses sine respiratione of fighting without a pause.^[2][4]
• 4 BC–AD 65 – Seneca uses it of recovering one's breath.^[2][4]
• c. 160–220 – Tertullian uses it of the dead coming back to life.^[7][4]
• 11th century – Guido's Micrologus uses it of a pause for breath in singing.^[9]
• late 14th century – English borrows it as respiration.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The recovering of one's breath after it has been held.^[2][6]
2. A pause for breath during exertion or in speaking; a respite.^[2][5] sine respīrātiōne: without a pause.^[2][5][6]
3. Breathing, respiration.^[2][5]
4. (transferred) Emission of vapour, exhalation.^[2][5][6]
5. (Late Latin) A coming back to life, of the bones of the dead.^[7]
6. (Medieval Latin) Relief, a breathing space.^[10]
7. (Medieval Latin, grammar) A breathing (rough or smooth) in Greek.^[8]
8. (Medieval Latin, music) A pause for breath in singing; a caesura.^[9]

Related words

• respīrātus
• English respiration

Usage notes

The rare fourth-declension noun respīrātus has the same meaning.^[2][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Lexicon musicum Latinum medii aevi (1992–), Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften; online ed. Wörterbuchnetz
10. ^ a b du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
11. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com