inspire

Where it comes from

Inspire ordinarily means to fill someone with an urge, idea, confidence, or creative energy. Inspire came through Old French inspirer from Latin inspirare, formed from in-, into, and spirare, to breathe or blow. Latin could use the verb literally for breathing or blowing into something and figuratively for exciting or animating it. Religious language made breath a model for divine influence: a god or spirit could be imagined as breathing words, life, or purpose into a person.

How the meaning developed

English first emphasized this supernatural prompting, then widened inspire to any person, work, or idea that awakens thought or action.