Etymograph

English

transpire

Transpire comes from Medieval Latin transpirare ‘to breathe through’, from Latin trans ‘across’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *terh₂- ‘through, throughout, over’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*terh₂-1‘through, throughout, over’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*tr̥h₂-n̥ts1reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*trānts1reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtrans2‘across’
  5. Medieval Latinc. 600–1500transpirare2‘to breathe through’
  6. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600transpirer2
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1832transpire2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin trans
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English transpire
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1832, Thomas De Quincey, Klosterheim Or: “The story of Paulina's and Maximilian's mutual attachment had…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*terh₂-Wiktionary, Latin trans‘through, throughout, over’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*tr̥h₂-n̥tsWiktionary, Latin transreconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*trāntsWiktionary, Latin transreconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtransWiktionary, English transpire‘across’
  5. Medieval Latinc. 600–1500transpirareWiktionary, English transpire‘to breathe through’
  6. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600transpirerWiktionary, English transpire
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1832transpireWiktionary, English transpire. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1832, Thomas De Quincey, Klosterheim Or: “The story of Paulina's and Maximilian's mutual attachment had…”

The story

The sense “to become known” is also present in French, while the sense “to happen” is not; the latter probably developed in English from the former.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *terh₂- ‘through, throughout, over’

through, enter, thorough, avatar, tram, tardy, torus, tranquillity, sarai, 20 more

through Latin trans ‘across’

transitive, 7 more

Today it means

verb To give off (vapour, waste matter etc.); to exhale (an odour etc.).

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “transpire”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin trans. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *terh₂- / transpire

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