Exsufflatio

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A term referring to the act of blowing air or puffing breath
2. an unusual or nonsensical form of speech often perceived as inflated or empty
3. a practice of creating an exaggerated or false impression through verbal expression

Etymology: Exsufflation is a technical term from Christian ritual, and its story is one of a word that began as a plain physical act and was later narrowed to a single liturgical gesture. The Latin "exsufflatio" comes from "exsufflare," meaning "to blow out" or "to blow away," built from the prefix "ex-" (out) and "sufflare" (to blow upon), which is itself linked to "flare," to blow. In classical Latin the word described simply blowing something away, and it still carries that sense of forceful expulsion of air. In ecclesiastical Latin the term took on a specialised meaning: a rite in which the priest breathes upon a person, most often a candidate for baptism, to drive out the evil spirit believed to dwell within. The gesture appears in the rites of baptism and in older exorcism liturgies, where the breath stands for the banishing of the demonic. English took the word in its technical sense, and it remains mainly a term of church history and liturgical study, though the general meaning of blowing out or forth is still recorded in dictionaries.

Synonyms: exsufflation, blowing out, inflation

Antonyms: inhalation, aspiration