From Latin 'exspirare' (to breathe out) — death as the final exhalation, the spirit breathing out of the body.
To come to the end of a period of validity; to die; to breathe out air from the lungs.
From Latin 'exspīrāre' (to breathe out, to exhale one's last breath, to die, to cease, to blow out as a flame), composed of 'ex-' (out, away, to the end) + 'spīrāre' (to breathe, to blow), from Proto-Indo-European *speys- (to blow, to breathe). The root *speys- produced the entire Latin 'spiritus' family: 'spīritus' (breath, spirit — the animating exhalation of a living being), 'inspīrāre' (to breathe into — 'inspire' in its original theological sense of a god breathing prophecy or life into a mortal), 'aspīrāre' (to breathe toward — 'aspire'), 'cōnspīrāre' (to breathe together — 'conspire,' originally meaning concerted united action), 'perspīrāre' (to breathe through — 'perspire'), and 'respirāre' (to breathe back and forth — 'respire,' 'respiration'). English
The word 'expire' connects mundane bureaucratic language to the most fundamental experience of human mortality. When your passport 'expires,' it linguistically dies — it breathes its last. The same metaphor links credit card expiration dates to the deathbed: all expirations are, etymologically, final breaths. In medical terminology, 'expiration' still literally
Words closest in meaning, ranked by similarity