![]() ![]() In the seven centuries since inspire came into English it has had a number of related words, including several for “one that inspires.” We have inspirer, inspirant, and, if you’re feeling a bit fancy, inspirator. William Sclater, A Briefe Esposition With Notes, 1627 Mysterium commonly sounds a Religious secret, not obuious to capacitie of euery vnderstanding, rather requiring some extraordinary afflatus to the conceiuing of it…. Flare also serves as the basis for a synonym of inspiration, which is afflatus. While the two words do not have a common ancestor, they do both come from Latin words dealing with exhalations of air ( flatulent comes from the Latin flare, “to blow, breathe”). Of some slight surprise, perhaps, is that inspire also shares a portion of its history with flatulent. ![]() This moving little word may be traced back to the Latin inspirare (“to breathe or blow into”), which itself is from the word spirare, meaning “to breathe.” It didn't take long to establish itself in a figurative sense, as our earliest written English uses of inspire give it the meaning “to influence, move, or guide (as to speech or action) through divine or supernatural agency or power.” Many of the early figurative senses of inspire are religious in nature, so it is not surprising to learn that the word shares a connection with spirit (which comes from the Latin word for “breath,” spiritus, which is also from spirare).Ī number of other early senses of inspire were indeed concerned with breath and blowing beginning in the late 14th century the word carried such meanings as “to breathe or blow upon,” “to breathe in,” and “to infuse (as life) by breathing.” ![]()
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