haleine

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French aleine, deverbal from alener (to breathe), from Medieval Latin anhēlō by metathesis. The h appeared around the 16th century under the influence of Latin hālō (to blow).

Pronunciation

Noun

haleine f (plural haleines)

  1. breath
    • 1640, Pierre Corneille, Horace, act 4, scene 2:
      Tout hors d’haleine il prend pourtant sa place
      All out of breath he took nonetheless his place
  2. breathing, respiration

Derived terms

Further reading

Anagrams

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.