smooth breathing

English

Etymology

Calque of Latin spīritus lēnis, from Ancient Greek ψιλὸν πνεῦμα (psilòn pneûma).

Noun

smooth breathing (plural smooth breathings)

1. (phonetics) The lack of aspiration on a vowel or semivowel in Ancient Greek.
2. (orthography) A diacritic (᾿/◌̓) in Ancient, Medieval and Modern Greek used to indicate this lack of aspiration (or its historical presence), e.g. ἀ, ῤ.

   Synonyms: spiritus lenis, psili, psilon pneuma

   Coordinate terms: rough breathing, spiritus asper

Translations

diacritic in Greek

Finnish: heikko henkäys, spiritus lenis French: esprit doux (fr) m German: Spiritus lenis (de) m Greek: ψιλή (el) f (psilí) Ancient: ψιλὸν πνεῦμα n (psilòn pneûma) Italian: spirito dolce m Latin: spīritus lēnis m Polish: przydech słaby m Portuguese: espírito brando (pt) m Russian: то́нкое придыха́ние n (tónkoje pridyxánije), зва́тельце (ru) n (zvátelʹce) Sicilian: spìritu duci m

Further reading

• smooth breathing on Wikipedia.Wikipedia