quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- animal
- animal: [14] Etymologically, an animal is a being which breathes (compare DEER). Its immediate source was the Latin adjective animālis ‘having a soul’, a derivative of the noun anima ‘breath, soul’ (which also gave English the verb and adjective animate [15]). Anima is a member of a set of related words in which the notions of ‘breath, wind’ and ‘spirit, life’ are intimately connected: for instance, Greek ánemos ‘wind’ (possible source of English anemone), Latin animus ‘spirit, mind, courage, anger’ (source of English animosity [15] and animus [19]), Sanskrit ániti ‘breathe’, Old English ōthian ‘breathe’, Swedish anda ‘breath, spirit’, and Gothic usanan ‘breathe out’.
The ‘breath’ sense is presumably primary, the ‘spirit, life’ sense a metaphorical extension of it.
=> anemone, animate, animosity, animus - exhalation (n.)
- late 14c., "act of exhalation; that which is exhaled," from Latin exhalationem (nominative exhalatio) "an exhalation, vapor," noun of action from past participle stem of exhalare "to breathe out" (see exhale).
- exhale (v.)
- c. 1400, transitive, originally of liquids, perfumes, etc., from Middle French exhaler (14c.), from Latin exhalare "breathe out, evaporate," from ex- "out" (see ex-) + halare "breathe." Of living things, "to breathe out," 1580s transitive; 1863 intransitive. Related: Exhaled; exhaling.
- expiration (n.)
- early 15c., "vapor, breath," from Middle French expiration, from Latin expirationem/exspirationem (nominative expiratio/exspiratio) "a breathing out, exhalation," noun of action from past participle stem of expirare/exspirare "breathe out; breathe one's last" (see expire). Meaning "termination, end, close" is from 1560s.
- expire (v.)
- c. 1400, "to die," from Old French expirer "expire, elapse" (12c.), from Latin expirare/exspirare "breathe out, blow out, exhale; breathe one's last, die," hence, figuratively, "expire, come to an end, cease," from ex- "out" (see ex-) + spirare "to breathe" (see spirit (n.)). "Die" is the older sense in English; that of "breathe out" is first attested 1580s. Of laws, patents, treaties, etc., mid-15c. In 17c. also transitive. Related: Expired; expiring.