transpiration

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun the passage of gases through fine tubes because of differences in pressure or temperature
noun the process of giving off or exhaling water vapor through the skin or mucous membranes
noun the emission of water vapor from the leaves of plants

Borrowed from Middle French transpiration, from Medieval Latin transpiratio, from transpiro, from Latin trans + spiro.

Neither is transpiration, as in plants, a thing to be valued, nor respiration, as in domesticated animals and wild beasts, nor the receiving of impressions by the appearances of things, nor being moved by desires as puppets by strings, nor assembling in herds, nor being nourished by food; for this is just like the act of separating and parting with the useless part of our food. — Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius
I was at least thirty yards lower down than when I entered the stream, and the water was rushing and foaming all round me; another stagger nearly carried me off my feet, and, in the exertion to keep them, a thick transpiration rose upon my forehead, my ears began to sing, and my head to swim, while, disordered in their balance, the buck and the guns almost strangled me, I looked down the channel; the water was running in a white, broken rapid into the black pool below, and swept with a wide, foaming back-water under the steep rock which turned its force. — The True Story Book, Unknown

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