respirație

Forms

respirație f (plural respirații)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French respiration, also directly borrowed from Latin respīrātiō, the two sources DEX, MDA2 and DN give.^[2][3][4][1] Tiktin names Italian respirazione and French.^[5] The Lexicon of Buda (1825) already derived it from Latin.^[6] The Latin word, “a breathing out, taking breath”, is formed from respīrō (“to breathe out, recover one's breath”) with the suffix -tiō, and the French word is a learned loan from it.^[7][8][1] Within Romanian it corresponds to respira with the suffix -ție.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1816, page 63 of an Învățătură by Petru Maior;^[5][3] MDA2 cites the same page.^[5][3] The Lexicon of Buda of 1825 has respirație with the plural respirații and refers to the native word răsuflare; it gives the phrase respirație greuă “heavy breathing”.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Negulici's dictionary of 1848 explains it with răsuflare, the native word for breathing.^[9] Tiktin records a figurative sense, “emanation”, and an obsolete form respirațiune.^[5][3] Modern dictionaries define it as the exchange of gases between living organisms and their surroundings and as the rhythmic movement of breathing; it also names the air breathed out.^[2][3] The phrase de largă respirație “of wide breath” describes a work of great scope.^[2][4] MDN adds a short pause in musical phrasing, and in drug slang it is the inhaling of a drug.^[10][11]

Timeline

• 1816 – first record, in a work of Petru Maior.^[5]
• 1825 – in the Lexicon of Buda, with respirație greuă.^[6]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. respiration: the processes by which living organisms take in oxygen and give off carbon dioxide; the rhythmic act of breathing, răsuflare.^[2][3]
2. respirație artificială: artificial respiration, reviving a person by moving air in and out of the lungs.^[2][4]
3. The air breathed out, breath.^[2][3]
4. (figurative) The spreading of feelings or ideas from a work, and in de largă respirație great scope.^[3][10]
5. (music) A very short pause in phrasing.^[10]

Related words

• respira
• respirator
• respirabil
• Latin respīrātiō

Usage notes

The older form respirațiune is obsolete.^[3][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 947
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 696
4. ^ a b c d Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România
5. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. respiráție
6. ^ a b c Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.)
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București
10. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
11. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu