aspirate

Definition

The puff of air accompanying the release of a plosive or fricative consonant.

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin aspīrātus.

Example Sentences

• "We now come to the so-called aspirate [h], which must be also classified as a fricative consonant."
• "a. 1742, Richard Bentley, letter to Dr. Mead But we must correct then twenty authors who have it in the compound ἀπηθεῖν and ἀπήθημα ; and not (as the aspirate would require it) ἀφηθεῖν and αφήθημα"