inspire

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To make someone feel they want to do something or to give them new ideas.

   His success inspired me to start my own business.

2. 2
   verb

   To be the source of a creative work or idea.

   The wild landscape inspired many of her poems.

3. 3
   verb

   To fill someone with a particular feeling.

   A good teacher can inspire confidence in nervous students.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Inspire entered English in the late Middle English period from a Latin formation based on spirare, “to breathe,” with the sense “breathe into.” The source connects it with the idea that a divine or external power inspires a person.

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁én Proto-Italic *en Proto-Italic *en- Latin in- Latin spīrō Latin īnspīrōbor. Old French espirer Old French enspirerbor. Middle English enspiren English inspire From Middle English inspiren, enspiren, from Old French inspirer, variant of espirer, from Latin īnspīrāre (“inspire”), itself a loan-translation of Biblical Ancient Greek πνέω (pnéō, “breathe”), from in + spīrō (“breathe”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peys- (“to blow, breathe”). Displaced native Old English onbryrdan (literally “to prick in”).

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External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary