perspiration

perspiration

English

Etymology

Borrowed from late Middle French perspiration, from perspirer (“perspire”), from Latin perspirare (“to blow or breathe constantly”), from per (“through”) + spirare (“to breathe, blow”)Morphologically perspire +‎ -ation

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌpɜːspəˈɹeɪʃən/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌpɝspəˈɹeɪʃən/

• Audio (CA)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən
• Hyphenation: per‧spi‧ra‧tion

Noun

perspiration (usually uncountable, plural perspirations)

1. The action or process of perspiring.
   • 1627, Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum: or, A Naturall Historie, London: W. Lee, Cent. VII, section 680, page 170:

     The Cauſe may be Want of Perſpiration : For Much of the Matter of Haire, in the other Parts of the Body, goeth forth by Inſenſible Perſpiration ; And beſides, the Skull being of a more ſolide Subſtance, nouriſheth and aſſimilateth leſſe, and excerneth more.

2. (by extension) Hard work.
   • 1910, Frank Lewis Dyer; Thomas Commerford Martin, quoting Thomas Edison, Edison: His Life and Inventions, volume II, New York: Harper & Brothers, page 607:

     Genius is 1 per cent. inspiration and 99 per cent. perspiration.

3. A saline fluid secreted by the sweat glands; sweat.

Synonyms

• sweat
• hidrosis
• diaphoresis

Derived terms

• genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration

Related terms

• perspire
• transpiration

Translations

process of perspiring

Arabic: عَرَق‎ m (ʿaraq) Armenian: քրտնում (hy) (kʿrtnum), քրտնարտադրություն (hy) (kʿrtnartadrutʿyun) Bashkir: тирләү (tirläw) Bulgarian: потене n (potene), изпотяване n (izpotjavane) Burmese: please add this translation if you can Chinese: Mandarin: 流汗 (zh) (liúhàn), 汗 (zh) (hàn) Czech: pocení n, perspirace f Dutch: zweet (nl) n Esperanto: ŝvitado Finnish: hikoilu (fi), hikoileminen (fi) French: transpiration (fr) f Galician: transpiración (gl) f German: Schwitzen n Greek: εφίδρωση (el) f (efídrosi) Hungarian: izzadás (hu), verítékezés Italian: sudore (it) m Japanese: 汗 (ja) (あせ, ase) Khmer: ញើស (km) (ñəəh) Korean: 땀 (ko) (ttam) Lao: please add this translation if you can Latin: sudor (la) m Mongolian: хөлс (mn) (xöls) Norwegian: Bokmål: transpirasjon m Nynorsk: transpirasjon m Plautdietsch: Schweet m Polish: perspiracja f, pocenie się n Portuguese: suor (pt) m, transpiração (pt) f, perspiração f Russian: поте́ние (ru) n (poténije) Spanish: sudor (es) m Swedish: svett (sv) n, svettning (sv) c Thai: please add this translation if you can Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can

sweat — see sweat

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French

Noun

perspiration f (plural perspirations)

1. perspiration

Further reading

• “perspiration”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.