1814: breath, broth, and brood Dec 3, 2019

The word 'breath' is a very old one, being related to basic biology. Indeed, it used to have another physiological meaning of 'smell' or 'scent'. It is pretty common for old words to have changed meaning, and in this case it is likely due to having connoted 'vapor' and 'exaltation from steam'. It shares some etymological history to 'brood', and may also have a distant relation to 'broth', which possibly helps to illuminate the connection.

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