Breath

Forms: 1 brǽþ, Anglian bréþ, 2–3 breð, 3–6 breth, 4 breeth, breeþ, breþ(e, 4–6 brethe, 6 breathe, 6– breath. [OE. brǽþ, bréþ odor, smell, exhalation as of anything cooking or burning:—WGer. type *brâþ-, OTeut. *brǣþo-z:—Aryan *bhrêto-, with original sense ‘exhalation from heat, steam, reek,’ f. root *bhrē-, Teut. *brǣ- to burn, heat: see BREDE v.¹, and BROOD. Thus related to OHG. brâdam, MHG. bradem, Ger. brodem ‘exhalation, vapour, steam’:—OTeut. type *brǣþmo-z:—Aryan bhrē·-tmo- (cf. Skr. ā·-tman, etc.), f. same root. The sense passed in Eng. through that of ‘heated air expired from the lungs’ (often manifest to the sense of smell, as in ‘strong breath’) to ‘the air in the lungs or mouth,’ thus taking the place of OE. ǽðm, early ME. ēþem (see ETHEM), and ME. ANDE, ONDE, Sc. aind, aynd, from Old Norse. The original long vowel of OE. brǽþ has only recently been shortened; the 16th c. (brēþ) having become (breþ), instead of (brīþ) as in the verb BREATHE.]

  † 1.  Odor, smell, scent. Obs.

c. 893.  K. Ælfred, Oros., VI. xxxii. § 2. Þa ongon se cealc mid unʓemete stincan; þa wearþ Iuninianus mid þæm bræþe ofsmorod.

a. 1100.  Ags. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 3. Odor, bræþ.

c. 1175.  Lamb. Hom., 153. Hwenne þe nose bið open to smelle unlofne breð.

a. 1340.  Hampole, Pr. Consc., 613. He may se fra his body com … Alkyn filthe with stynkand brethe.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 8804. Bawme, þat was bright, & of brethe noble.

  2.  An exhalation or vapor given forth by heated objects, etc.; steam, smoke, reek. Obs. exc. as in b.

a. 1300.  Pop. Treat. Sc., 203 (Wright), 136. Both of the see and of fersch water he draweth up the breth.

a. 1340.  Hampole, Pr. Consc., 4727. Blode and fire and brethe of smoke.

1398.  Trevisa, Earth. De P. R., XVII. xxvi. (1495), 619. Whan canell is broke therof comyth a breth as it were a myste.

1561.  Hollybush, Hom. Apoth., 3. Hold thy nose over it that the vapor or hot breth ascende into thy head.

1667.  Milton, P. L., IV. 806. Like gentle breaths from Rivers pure.

  b.  (with influence of sense 3): The air exhaled from anything, or impregnated with its exhalations, and retaining its characteristic odor. Also fig. Cf. AIR.

1625.  Bacon, Gardens, Ess. (Arb.), 557. Because the Breath of Flowers is farre Sweeter in the Aire … then in the hand.

1830.  Tennyson, A Spirit haunts, 18. The moist rich smell of the rotting leaves, And the breath Of the fading edges of box beneath.

1837.  Newman, Par. Serm. (ed. 2), III. x. 147. Full of the … breath of the grave.

1874.  Blackie, Self-Cult., 43. What a student should specially see to … is not to carry the breath of books with him wherever he goes.

  c.  with a mixture of the sense of ‘puff’: A little of the air, a whiff.

1873.  Black, Pr. Thule, xxv. 424. The remote islands, where a stranger brought … a breath of the outer world with him.

  3.  a. The air exhaled from the lungs, originally as made manifest by smell, or as a visible exhalation; hence b. generally, The air received into and expelled from the lungs in the act of respiration. To draw breath: to inhale air, breathe; hence, to live: also to spend, waste (one’s) breath (as in unprofitable speech). This is now the main sense, which colors all others.

  a.  c. 1340.  Cursor M., 3573 (Trin.). Teeþ to rote, breeþ [earlier MSS. ande] to stynke.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Pardoneres T., 224. Sour is thi breeth.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., V. xxxvii. (1495), 152. Changynge of breth comyth of vnyuersall corrupcion of the inner membres.

1601.  Shaks., Jul. C., I. ii. 249. The rabblement … vttered such a deale of stinking breath, because Cæsar refus’d the Crowne.

1642.  Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., IV. xviii. 333. A Swede fights best when he can see his own breath.

1842.  T. Martin, My Namesake, in Fraser’s Mag., Dec., 658/2. You will oblige me by keeping your own breath to cool your own porridge.

Mod.  His breath smelling strong of alcohol.

  b.  c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 50. Brethe, anelitus.

1535.  Coverdale, Ps. cxxxiv[v]. 16. They heare not, nether is there eny breth in their mouthes.

c. 1534.  Pilgrim’s T., 476, in Thynne, Animadv., App. i. 90. That ever it dreu brethe.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 699. Draw the vital breath of upper Air.

1712.  Steele, Spect., No. 426, ¶ 2. Within ten Hours after the Breath is out of the Body.

1713.  Berkeley, Hylas & Phil., iii. Wks. 1871, I. 323. I will no longer spend my breath in defence of it.

1809.  W. Irving, Knickerb. (1861), 157. Even the inhabitants of New-Amsterdam began to draw short breath.

1842.  Tennyson, Morte d’Arth., 148. Then spoke King Arthur, drawing thicker breath. Ibid. (1850), In Mem., cxx. I trust I have not wasted breath.

  c.  transf. The wind blown into a musical instrument. poet.

1605.  Shaks., Macb., V. vi. 19. Make all our Trumpets speak, giue them all breath.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., II. 789. Before the Breath Of brazen Trumpets rung the Peals of Death.

1878.  Browning, La Saisiaz, 36. But the soul is not the body: and the breath is not the flute.

  d.  fig. Taken as the type of things unsubstantial, volatile or fleeting.

1593.  Shaks., Lucr., 212. A dream, a breath, a froth of fleeting joy. Ibid. (1603), Meas. for M., III. i. 8. A breath thou art, Seruile to all the skyie-influences.

  † 4.  A gentle blowing, a puff; now usually of air or of wind; but in early times used absolutely in sense of ‘wind, breeze, air in motion.’

c. 1325.  E. E. Allit. P., C. 107. Þe blyþe breþe at her bak þe bosum he fyndes. Ibid., 138. When boþe breþes con blowe vpon blo watteres.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 3697. Þe bre and the brethe burbelit to gedur.

1627.  Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., x. 46. There is not a breath of wind stirring.

1711.  Steele, Spect., No. 167, ¶ 3. The least Breath of Wind has often demolished my magnificent Edifices.

1822.  Shelley, Hellas, 4. Sweet as a summer night without a breath.

1833.  Ht. Martineau, Manch. Strike, vi. 67. A breath of fresh air came in.

1860.  Tyndall, Glac., I. § 18. 133. There was not a breath of air stirring.

  b.  In the ‘breath of summer,’ ‘of morn,’ etc., there is almost always an admixture, great or small, of a fig. use of senses 2 b, 3 a.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Prol., 5. Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth Inspired hath … the tendre croppes.

c. 1600.  Shaks., Sonn., liv. When summers breath their masked buds discloses.

1775.  Sheridan, Duenna, I. i. 185. The breath of morn bids hence the night.

1821.  Byron, Sardan., I. ii. 575. Can I not even breathe The breath of heaven?

  c.  fig. In such phrases as ‘the breath of popular favor’ (cf. Lat. popularis aura), the original notion of the breath of favoring wind which fills the sails, is much mixed with that of spoken or whispered breath, and sometimes with other of the later senses.

a. 1639.  Wotton, Char. Happy Life, in Reliq. Wotton. Untide unto the world by care Of Publike fame or private breath.

1692.  South, 12 Serm. (1697), I. 32. The Mind can … quickly feel the thinness of a popular Breath.

a. 1703.  Burkitt, On N. T., Mark i. 45. Christ retires from the breath of popular applause.

1790.  Gouvr. Morris, in Sparks, Life & Writ. (1832), II. 96. They must patiently wait the breath of the Assemblée, and follow as it blows.

1874.  H. Reynolds, John Bapt., i. § 4. 35. Forced into new attitudes by the changing breath of human appreciation.

  5.  The faculty or action of breathing, respiration. Hence, breathing existence, spirit, life; so breath of life, breath of the nostrils.

a. 1300.  Seven Sins, 41, in E. E. P. (1862), 19. Þe deuil benimiþ him is breþ.

1382.  Wyclif, Gen. i. 7. And spiride in to the face of hym an entre of breth of lijf.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 2194. Whan with honour vp volden is his breeth.

1587.  Mirr. Mag., Alban, lxx. Now faint I feele, my breath begins to fayle.

1611.  Shaks., Wint. T., V. i. 83. When your first Queene’s againe in breath.

1611.  Bible, Gen. vii. 22. All in whose nosethrils was the breath of life.

1738.  Wesley, Psalms, No. 121. v. He guards our Souls, he keeps our Breath.

1821.  Clare, Vill. Minstr., I. 169. Now, poor puss! thou’st lost thy breath, And decent laid the molds beneath.

1850.  Tennyson, In Mem., xxxvi. And so the Word had breath.

  b.  To catch or hold one’s breath: to check suddenly or suspend the act of respiration. Also fig.

1719.  De Foe, Crusoe, iii. I held my breath…. I was ready to burst with holding my breath.

1816.  Byron, Ch. Har., II. lxxxiv. In his lair Fix’d Passion holds his breath, until the hour Which shall atone for years.

1833.  Marryat, P. Simple, xlvii. ‘I see her,’ replied I, catching my breath with joy.

1864.  Glasgow Her., 11 June, 5/1. It also catches my breath and makes me cough.

  6.  An act of breathing; a single respiration. Hence phrases: In (with) one or the same breath, at a breath, etc.

1483.  Cath. Angl., 43. A Breth; vbi ande.

1489.  Caxton, Faytes of A., II. xxxix. 164. Taughte to … plonge in to the watre and with a long breth to kepe them self therynne.

1571.  Buchanan’s Detect. Mary, in H. Campbell, Love-lett. Mary. Q. Scots (1824), 148. When she cannot stay him in life, cometh she to receive his last breath?

1588.  Marprel. Epist. (Arb.), 3. I cannot very often at one breath come to a full point.

1634.  Quarles, Embl., I. (1818), 58. Thou swallowest at one breath Both food and poison down.

1747.  Pope, Eloisa, 333. Till ev’ry motion, pulse, and breath, be o’er.

1850.  Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., xvii. 160. I’ll fight to the last breath, before they shall take my wife and son.

1858.  Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Jrnls., I. 83. In the space of half a dozen breaths.

1867.  Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), I. vi. 506. The Chroniclers speak of it in the same breath with the election of Harold.

  7.  Power of breathing, free or easy breathing. Chiefly in phrases: e.g., Out of breath: breathing with difficulty, breathless; so in breath (obs.), to get, keep, lose one’s breath, to put out of breath.

1590.  Shaks., Com. Err., IV. i. 57. You run this humor out of breath. Ibid. (1602), Ham., V. ii. 282. The King shal drinke to Hamlets better breath.

1603.  Knolles, Hist. Turkes (1621), 1254. The Turkes yet in breath … gave an attempt unto the high Towne.

1782.  Cowper, J. Gilpin, xl. Away went Gilpin out of breath.

1810.  Scott, Lady of L., I. vii. Two dogs … Unmatched for courage, breath, and speed.

1859.  Tennyson, Elaine, 421. At last he got his breath and answer’d.

  b.  To take breath, to breathe freely, to recover free breathing, as by pausing after exertion. Also fig.

1581.  Nowell & Day, in Confer., I. (1584), G iij. Some of vs were fayne to go out of the chauncel to take breath.

1581.  J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 401. To pause awhiles, and to take breath upon good advise, what were best to be done.

1828–41.  Tytler, Hist. Scot. (1864), I. 112. They sat down to take breath.

  8.  Opportunity or time for breathing; exercise of the respiratory organs. Also fig.

1594.  Shaks., Rich. III., IV. ii. 24. Giue me some litle breath, some pawse, deare Lord.

1606.  Shaks., Tr. & Cr., II. iii. 121. He hopes it is no other, But for your health, and your digestion sake, An after Dinners breath. Ibid., IV. v. 92. Their fight … either to the vttermost Or else a breath.

1673.  Temple, Observ. United Prov., Wks. 1731, I. 24. The great Breath that was given the States in the Heat of their Affairs.

  † b.  Of mines, etc.: To have breath: to have free passage for foul air or gas. Obs. rare.

1599.  Hakluyt, Voy., II. I. 83. The mine had vent or breath in two places.

  9.  transf. Whisper, utterance, articulate sound, speech; judgment or will expressed in words.

1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. XIV. 61. Þorw his breth mowen men & bestes lyuen. Ibid., XVIII. 319. With þat breth helle brake.

1589.  J. Hart, Orthogr., 6. To use as many letters in our writing as we do voyces or breathes in speaking.

1599.  Shaks., Much Ado, V. i. 273. Art thou the slaue that with thy breath hast kild mine innocent childe?

1612.  T. Taylor, Comm. Titus i. 9. Noting in one breath of Bellarmine three errors.

1720.  Watts, Div. Songs, xvii. iii. Hard names … and threatening words, That are but noisy breath.

1770.  Goldsm., Des. Vill., 54. A breath can make them, as a breath has made.

1785.  Burns, Cotter’s Sat. Nt., xix. Princes and lords are but the breath of kings.

1830.  Tennyson, Dream F. W., ii. Dan Chaucer, the first warbler, whose sweet breath Preluded those melodious bursts.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), V. 114. There is an undoubted power in public opinion when no breath is heard adverse to the law.

  b.  Below or under one’s breath: in a low voice or whisper. Bated breath: see BATED ppl. a.

1832.  Lytton, Eugene A., I. iii. Hush, said Ellinor under her breath.

1865.  J. Ussher, Lond. to Persep., 249. The Armenian woman can only talk in her own house below her breath.

  10.  Phonology. Voiceless expiration of air, forming a hiss, whish, puff, or similar sound. attrib., as in breath consonant, a consonant formed by the breath in the mouth without the action of the vocal chords: such are the sounds k, t, p, χ, ∫, s, þ, f.

1867.  Melville Bell, Visible Speech, 49. When the breath, or the voice, is moulded by precise dispositions of the parts of the mouth. Ibid., 70. The Breath-glide.

1874.  Sweet, Hist. Eng. Sounds, 76. To determine the laws which govern the distribution of the breath þ and f, and the voice ð and v. Ibid. (1879), in Philol. Soc. Trans., 471. Swedish … final voiced stops … seem to be shorter than in English, and to have a stronger breath off-glide.

  11.  Comb., as breath-bereaving, -blown, -catching, -giver, -giving, -stopping; breath-bubble, a bubble blown by the breath; fig. an empty thing, a trifle; † breath-room, room for breathing, breathing-space; † breath-seller, one who sells perfumes or scents; also, one who speaks for pay; breath-sounds, respiratory sounds heard in auscultation; breath-tainted a., having tainted or foul breath; also fig.

1618.  Brathwait, Descr. Death, in Farr’s S. P. (1848), 270. A *breath-bereaving breath … He comes … to rid us of our feares.

1827.  Hood, Hero & Leander, xxxviii. A *breath-blown dart Shot sudden from an Indian’s hollow cane.

1835.  Browning, Paracelsus, I. 30. Painted toys, *Breath-bubbles, gilded dust.

1868.  Mrs. H. Wood, Flowers, in Argosy, 1 June, 53. ‘But—what’s killing him?’ cried Sale, with a pause and a sort of *breath-catching.

1609.  Metamorph. Tobacco (Collier), 9. *Breath-giuing herbe.

1669.  Worlidge, Syst. Agric., viii. § 3. 161. Leaving the Plant a little *Breath-room in the middle.

1601.  Cornwallyes, Ess., II. xlix. (1631), 310. Call in those *breath-sellers, and perfumers.

1603.  Florio, Montaigne, I. xxii. (1632), 52. A fourth estate of Lawyers, *breathsellers, and pettifoggers.

1645.  Quarles, Sol. Recant., I. 42. An old *Breath-tainted Churl.