Words Worth Knowing: Air
It is clear that we need air to live, but it seems that we are also dependent on air for language. We use the word air for many things that are not directly related to breathing, so much so that for the selection of definitions that I leave you below I took only those that I considered most important and were not even half! Something similar happened to us with the etymology of the word, that when we did not feel satisfied with a way of calling the air, in the middle of history we decided to change it and adopt a new one. Didn’t you know that we used to call the air in a different way? Well, I’ll tell you about it right here!
Dictionary Definition
Air: Noun. The mixture of invisible odorless tasteless gases (such as nitrogen and oxygen) that surrounds the earth. (Merriam Webster Dictionary)
Air: Count noun. A breeze or light wind. (Oxford English dictionary)
Air: Count noun. An impression of a quality or manner given by someone or something: ‘she answered with a faint air of boredom’ (Oxford English dictionary)
Air: Noun. A surrounding or pervading influence: Atmosphere. (Merriam Webster Dictionary)
Air: Verb. To expose to the air for drying, purifying, or refreshing: Ventilate. (Merriam Webster Dictionary)
Air: Verb. To expose to public view or bring to public notice (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)
Air: Verb. To transmit by radio or television. (Merriam Webster Dictionary)
The air surrounds us, caresses us, hits us, gives us life, and takes it away from us. Don’t you think so? Then what’s a tornado made of? Air! The word air is extremely common in our language, one of the 1000 most commonly used words according to the Collins English dictionary.
Not knowing how to use the word air is almost as serious as not knowing how to breathe, so here are a few examples just in case:
− « The more people there are per unit of space, the faster the CO2 level in the air within that space will rise ».
From Popular Science website Article: Dozing off in a meeting? It could be the air. 2019
− « Four people have died in a packed train without air conditioning as temperatures soared to nearly 50C in India ».
From Independent website Article: India heatwave: Four people die in train carriage without air conditioning. 2019
− « Love Island doesn’t air on a Saturday so the 2019 cast can ‘get a day off’ from the intensities of the Majorcan villa.
From Metro News website Article: Love Island doesn’t air on Saturdays so cast ‘get a day off’ and go to the beach. 2019
A name for an invisible force
Imagine that you are a prehistoric human being, who lives in his cave and only understands of life that it is necessary to hunt mammoths and gather berries so as not to die of starvation, to look for water to wet the dry throat and to approach the fire so as not to die frozen. You try to understand what you see, and give it a name so you can talk about it with your family and peers. But what happens when you have to name what you don’t see?
The first names registered for the air are not of the air itself, but of the things which were seen moving because of the air. In the Proto-Germanic language the word they gave him was *luftijaną, which was a verb: “To rise because of the air“. This word transcended Old Norse lypta, also a verb: “to raise in the air“, and then Middle English liften, shortened to lift or luft, which was already used more specifically to speak of air.
But this word did not transcend beyond this point, for in the course of the Middle Ages English was influenced by Old-French, and everyone seemed more attracted to the word aire or eir, which referred to air as well as atmosphere and sky. The French had taken it from the Latin aer, with the same meaning, and these in turn from the Greek aēr, which referred to “mist, haze, clouds”, that is, those things that contain air and move thanks to it. We adopted the French word eir with our own way of writing it, and it became “air” from the 13th century onwards.
And now we’re satisfied! Or at least I couldn’t even consider there to be a more appropriate word, but with this millennial fashion of inventing new names for everything, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone suddenly had a new idea for naming that invisible force that moves us in life.
