inspired

English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈspaɪɹd/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈspaɪəd/
• Rhymes: -aɪə(ɹ)d

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adjective

inspired (comparative more inspired, superlative most inspired)

1. Having excellence through inspiration.

   The actor's inspired performance of Hamlet's soliloquy left the audience dumbfounded.

   • 2011 October 23, Tom Fordyce, “2011 Rugby World Cup final: New Zealand 8-7 France”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:

     New Zealand were crowned world champions for the first time in 24 years after squeezing past an inspired France team by a single point.

2. Filled with inspiration or motivated.

   The artist was inspired to paint a true masterpiece.

   He was inspired to learn to fly.

3. (religion) Infused with power or knowledge granted from a supernatural entity; possessing inspiration from the divine.

   Korean shamans are thought to be capable of inspired speech, in which they convey the words of the gods.

   • 1824, John Davidson, Discourses on Prophecy, in which are considered its structure, use, and inspiration: being the substance of twelve sermons preached in the chapel of Lincoln's Inn‎^[2], London: John Murray, Albermarle Street, page 502:

     The point which I wish to establish is this, that the whole prediction of the future establishment of the religion of the Gospel was an inspired prediction, a prediction answerable to the highest test of a supernatural prescience.

4. (of air) Drawn into the lungs; inhaled.
5. (obsolete) Inflated.

Hyponyms

• biologically-inspired

 

Verb

inspired

1. simple past and past participle of inspire.
   • 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 1, in Internal Combustion‎^[3]:

     But electric vehicles and the batteries that made them run became ensnared in corporate scandals, fraud, and monopolistic corruption that shook the confidence of the nation and inspired automotive upstarts.

Middle English

Verb

inspired

1. simple past/past participle of inspiren