• Revan343@lemmy.ca
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    22 days ago

    Both words share the Latin base for “to breathe”, spirare, which is also where we get expire, aspire, conspire, and even spirit

    And, presumably, ‘respire’/‘respiration’?

    • lemonmelon@lemmy.world
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      22 days ago

      Yup! Spirare is the Latin root of a lot of words, most likely due to how pneuma was believed to be the human soul. Breath and soul were one and the same, so it shows up in a lot of places.