inspirar

Forms

inspirar (first-person singular present inspiro, first-person singular preterite inspirei, past participle inspirado)^[1] Cunha records insperar in the 14th century;^[2][3] inspirar and insperar both appear in the 15th.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin inspīrō (“to blow into; to breathe; to inspire”), a learned word, recorded as Old Galician-Portuguese insperar in the 14th century.^[3][2][4][1] Medieval Latin used the verb in the religious sense “to inspire”.^[5] The same Latin word is Spanish inspirar, French inspirer and Italian inspirare.^[1] French had it from the end of the 12th century, as enspirer.^[6]

The Latin verb is made of in- and spīrō (“to breathe”).^[7][1] De Vaan thinks the simple verb may imitate the sound of breathing, and finds no direct cognates.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The religious sense came first in the dictionaries: Pereira in 1697 glosses it with Latin afflo and inspiro, and Bluteau in 1712 defines it as God giving the soul a supernatural light and impulse to do a good work, as when He sent Jonah to preach to Nineveh.^[9][10] Feijó repeats that sense in 1734.^[11] Morais in 1789 widens it to putting any feeling or idea into someone, and adds the physical sense of drawing air into the lungs.^[12] Vieira in 1871 puts the breathing sense first, and Figueiredo in 1899 gives it as the literal sense, with “to give inspiration, to suggest” as figurative.^[13][14] Modern dictionaries add the artist's source of ideas, the model that influences a work, and to arouse a feeling such as fear or respect.^[3][15]

Timeline

• 14th century – insperar.^[2]
• 15th century – inspirar.^[3][2]
• 16th century – first records of inspiração and inspirador.^[2]
• 1697 – Pereira glosses it with Latin afflo and inspiro.^[9]
• 1712 – Bluteau gives the sense of divine inspiration.^[10]
• 1789 – Morais adds “to draw air into the lungs”.^[12]
• 1844 – first record of inspiratório.^[2]
• 1881 – first record of inspirativo.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To draw air or another gas into the lungs; to inhale: inspire fundo e conte até três.^[3][16][1]
2. To exert or receive a divine or supernatural influence: os profetas foram inspirados por Deus.^[3][17]
3. To stir someone's creative power; to inspire: a cidade inspirou-lhe vários romances.^[3][16][1]
4. To fill with enthusiasm or animation.^[3]
5. To provide or take an idea, model or suggestion: inspirou-se nas lendas do Minho.^[3][16]
6. To arouse a feeling or thought; to instil: a casa inspirava medo.^[3][16][15]

Word family

• inspiração
• inspirador
• inspirativo
• inspiratório

Related words

• respirar
• expirar
• suspirar
• conspirar
• espírito
• Latin spīrō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. inspirar
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. inspirar
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. inspirar
5. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. inspirare
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. inspirer
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. inspirar
10. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. inspirar
11. ^ Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. inspirar
12. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 724
13. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 3, 1125
14. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 762
15. ^ a b Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. inspirar
16. ^ a b c d Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5307
17. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. inspirar