Inspire. We all know what it means, and we all love things that do it, right? Things that fill the heart and mind…things that prompt us to do something. The word has been around in English since the mid-1300s, and it came to us via the French enspirer, which in turn comes from the Latin inspirare, which literally means “to blow into, breathe upon.” Its figurative meaning, however, was “to inspire, excite, inflame.”
Why, you may ask, does the literal word have that figurative meaning? We can thank the writers of the New Testament for that! The Greek word pnein means “Spirit-breathed,” and when Latin became the language of the Church, they borrowed that idea from the Greek word…and have been inspiring us ever since. 😉
I don’t know about you, but I love the idea of the Holy Spirit breathing inspiration into our minds, hearts, and souls!
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.