Also 6 adsp-. [ad. L. aspīrātiōn-em, n. of action f. aspīrāre: see ASPIRE and -ATION.]
I. From ASPIRE.
† 1. The action of breathing into; inspiration.
a. 1535. More, Wks., 357 (R.). Without the adspiracion and helpe of whose especiall grace no laboure of man can profite.
c. 1534. trans. Pol. Verg. Eng. Hist. (1846), I. 169. Which thinge [he] … sayde not withoute the aspiration and assent of the Hollie Spirit.
2. The action of breathing or drawing one’s breath; a breath, sigh. techn. The drawing in of air in, or as in, breathing.
1607. Topsell, Serpents, 746. Corrupt inflamation taking away freedom or easinesse of aspiration.
1659. Leak, Water-works, 7. One … of those Syphons containes so much Air that it cannot be drawn forth by aspiration.
1775. Sheridan, Rivals, II. i. (1883), 93. There is … not an aspiration of the breeze, but hints some cause.
1823. J. F. Cooper, Pioneer, xxv. (1869), 110/2. She sighed with an aspiration so low that it was scarcely audible.
1869. Eng. Mech., 31 Dec., 379/2. Valves of aspiration … send the air into the body of the apparatus.
† 3. That which is breathed out, an exhalation.
1635. Swan, Spec. Mundi, vi. § 2 (1643), 196. An hot and drie aspiration exhaled out of the earth.
4. The action of aspiring; steadfast desire or longing for something above one.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., IV. v. 16. That spirit of his In aspiration lifts him from the earth.
1741. Watts, Improv. Mind, I. xv. (1801), 151. A soul inspired with the fondest love of truth, and the warmest aspirations after sincere felicity and celestial beatitude.
1862. Trollope, Orley Farm, xlvii. 340. Assured that he need regard no woman as too high for his aspirations.
1866. Alger, Solit. Nat. & Man, III. 120. Aspiration is a pure upward desire for excellence.
II. From ASPIRATE.
5. The action of aspirating: see ASPIRATE v.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. lxxxv. (1495), 835. This name Pigargus hath none aspiracion … and so it shall not be wryten wyth .h. but some men wryte Phigargus: and done amys.
1546. Langley, Pol. Verg. De Invent., I. vi. 13 b. H is no letter but a signe of aspiracion.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., 130. The addition of an h, or aspiration of the letter π.
1845. O’Donovan, Irish Gram., 39. Aspiration … of the Celtic … may be defined as the changing of the radical sounds of the consonants from being stops of the breath to a sibilance, or from a stronger to a weaker sibilance.
6. An aspirated sound or letter; the letter H or its equivalent; the breathings (‘) and (’) in Greek; = ASPIRATE sb.
c. 1550. Grafton, Briteyn (R.). Pritannia in Greke, with a circumflexed aspiracion, doth signifie metalles.
1605. J. Dove, Confut. Ath., 61. The letter ח He, which is but an aspiration.
1645. Fuller, Good Th. in Bad T. (1841), 62. What is no substantial letter but a bare aspiration.
1673. Hickeringill, Greg. Father Greyb., 292. Of less standing in the University, than Greek accents and aspirations.
1824. J. Johnson, Typogr., II. 282. The Greek vowels admit of two aspirations, viz. spiritus asper [‘] and spiritus lenis [’].
¶ Written asperation: see ASPIRATE sb. ¶.
1581. Marbeck, Bk. of Notes, 558. The letter of Asperation being altered out of his place.
