A philosopher might say that reSPIRation inSPIRes life. RESPire and RESPiration point to vitality in contrast to RESPITE and REST, which convey a sense of "STOP" or inertia as in "death" or "rest in peace". Such views are in harmony with biologic sciences which stress that any living status has only relative STABility.

BREATH or inHALE, exHALE, and HALItosis belong to a series of words that convey a HALO or sense of warmth and vapor. BREATH and BREEZE also point to BUST BURST as well as to ATMOS, ATMOSphere and ASTHMa, further explored below.

ReSPIRE and inSPIRE impact the SPIRit or ANIMA. In fact, when an ANIMA becomes ANIMATED, it emanates energy akin to a protruding SPIRE.  One word describes SPIRIT, SOULD and EXPIRED in Ukrainian. Some hold that the ANIMA of exPIRED persons can become a SPECTer that can trigger inSPIRed aSPIRing poets. More mundane is the case of gynecologists who may base their medical SPECulations on vistas gathered using a SPECulum.

ASTHMA, in medical parlance, refers to PANTing or gasping respirations. Asthma points to aSTHENOS which in Greek implies debility or lack of strength. PANTing and PANTaloon have roots in apere, Latin for open as in aperture. Pantaloon or PANTS are rather loose fitting BREECHES or britches that tremble as per TRUS and TRUSy which in Ukrainian denote pants as well as describe a trembling coward.

The relationship of BREATH with BUST, BREAST, BREECHES or britches are consonant with PANTing of loose fitting PANTs. Furthermore BRIUKo and BRIO also point to animate, as in panting abdomens or animated music.

 

From inHALe and exHALe, we get HAIL, HELlo, HALsa, hilse, HULlabaloo and other ancient battle shouts produced by vigorous exPIRAtion of breath. It is not clear if HALE points to HELL but HALITOSIS, which is linked to anHELO, points to a "bad" ANGEL or the devil. Earlier, the eminently earthy Romans linked fetid breath or HALITOSIS with HALLEX, a popular fetid sauce made from rotting fish. Later, dogmatic Biblical believers asserted that bad angels and their leader, the devil, had a rotten soul or HALITUS. In the dark ages, it became popular to hunt for WITCHES. Many women were called WICCA or witch and became WIGILA or victims of vicious and lethal prosecutions carried out in the name of the Lord. It was Goethe who named a Devil MEPHISTO or MEPHISTOPHELES to stress his roots in MEPHITIS or HADES and the HALITOSIS of HELL. 

 

Normally, respirations are unconscious. When respiration becomes laborious or conscious, in medical parlance it is called "dyspnea" a term that implies "ill breathing". Such is the case with bronchial ASTHma, which if severe, induces weakness or ASTHenia which is exactly what "asthma" implies. 

 

PNEUmonia or pulmonary inflammation may result in dysPNEA, transPIRATion, persPIRATon or even in death or exPIRATion which is viewed by most religions, as the release of the sPIRIT. The remaining aPNEIC breathless body is seen as a lifeless corpse. On the other hand, the asPIRATions of military corps and mercenary corporations is not to exPIRE but to insPIRE confidence in the public to endorse their materialism.