Breathe in... Breathe out...Words built on SPIR

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From the Latin word spirare, “to breathe,” and its derivative spriritus, “breath,” we get many English words containing the root spir. Some of these words have to do with the realm of spirits and other have to do with breathing (respiration), concepts that are closely related.

MONDAY - Spirit (Noun), Spirited (Adjective), Spiritual (Adjective, Noun)

The word spirit (from spiritus) has many meanings: the animating essence in living beings, a supernatural being, the essence of a person’s energy (as in “she was a free spirit”)—even an intoxicating drink as in (“wine and spirits”). Creation stories often include a moment where a divine creator breathes life into human beings, so that they are no longer mere matter but also spirit.  An evil spirit might haunt you until you can exorcise it, but you might also be visited by the kinds of spirits that come to Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol: the ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Future appear to the mean-spirited Scrooge to revive in him the true spirit of Christmas.

We use the adjective spirited to describe a person, animal, or phenomenon that shows vigor and life force. A spirited horse trots with notable vibrancy; a spirited rendition of a song is exuberant. When someone does something we like, we say “That’s the spirit!”

We distinguish spiritual matters from the mundane concerns of our everyday, material existence. The spiritual is the realm of ultimate matters of beliefs, values, what we conceive of as essential and eternal. An important genre of religious music was created by enslaved Africans in America, who sang about their suffering but also their hope for ultimate justice and redemption. These spirituals were passed down through many generations and are alive today in many African American churches.

TUESDAY - Respiration (Noun), Respirator (Noun), Respiratory (Adjective), Spiracle (Noun)

Breathing is a continuous process until we take our final breath. The prefix re sometimes means “again” and sometimes means “back” or “back from.” Breathing—respiration—is a process of taking in air and sending it back again into the universe.

When people can’t breathe, they may be put on a respirator, a machine that takes over the respiratory process. Another kind of respirator, the air-purifying respirator, is used to protect people from inhaling dangerous fumes.  An early air-purifying respirator was used as far back as ancient Rome when mine workers protected themselves against red lead oxide dust with devices made of animal bladders.

Of course, it’s not only humans that breathe. Animals have many different kinds of respiratory systems.  Whales, though they live in the ocean, are mammals and breathe oxygen. The blowholes through which they breathe are called spiracles.

WEDNESDAY - Inspire (Verb), Inspiration (Noun), Aspire (Verb), Aspiration (Noun)

A person who is inspired feels charged with a desire to do or create something—energized, elevated, excited.  Derived from the Latin word inspirare (to blow into, to breathe upon), inspiration suggests a state in which someone has been filled with a divine breath and thus moved to action.  We often think of artists as being inspired, but any significant act or action can be sparked by inspiration, including political movements or the founding of nations.

A closely related, but subtly different, word is aspire, which means to hope to achieve something.  Like inspiration¸ aspiration carries a sense of the ideal and elevated.  You don’t aspire to tie your shoes—you just do it.  But you might aspire to master a language or find a cure for cancer or develop a new art form. Perhaps there was an initial inspiration—a dream or the example of someone else—that gave you the idea and then you aspired to make the dream into a reality.

THURDAY - Conspire (Verb), Conspiracy (Noun), Conspirator (Noun)

We use the words inspire and aspire in relation to projects that we generally perceive as benevolent or great.  But when we use the word conspire, we are talking about something sinister.  The Latin prefix con means “with,” so the verb conspire carries the sense “to breathe with” others, suggesting the intimacy and secrecy of a plot.  We hear a great deal these days about conspiracy theories.  People who entertain and perpetuate conspiracy theories believe (or pretend to believe?) that secret, hidden, powerful forces are plotting to entrap, enslave, or otherwise victimize the rest of us. Part of the allure of conspiracy theories is that they give people a sense of being in the know, having access to the truth that others are too blind to see. Paranoia feeds narcissism.

But clearly not all conspiracies are imagined. Secret plots to overthrow kings, steal classified information, rob banks, and other kinds of mischief have been part of human history, even long before conspirators murdered Julius Caesar in 44 BCE to prevent him from become “dictator for life,” the title he aspired to.

FRIDAY - Perspire (Verb), Aspirate (Verb), Expire (Verb)

Because of its association with the element of breath, the root spir is often the basis for words associated with an ideal or immaterial realm, but spir also appears in words having to do with physical processes.  To perspire is to secrete moisture through the pores of the skin—very bodily indeed. Perspiration has a different odor (or connotation) than inspiration.

To aspirate is to draw something by suction.  A person can accidentally aspirate food or drink into the lungs, causing choking. Substances can also be drawn out of the body by aspiration. For example, a doctor might aspirate a cyst, using a needle to draw out fluid for testing.

And finally, we all come to the point where we expire. The Latin prefix ex means “from, out of.” When we breathe our last breath, we expire and live on, if we do at all, only in spirit.