different between aspire vs require

English

Etymology

From Middle English aspiren, from Old French aspirer, from Latin aspirare (“breathe on; approach; desire”). Doublet of aspirate.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??spa??(?)/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??spa??/
• Rhymes: -a??(?)
• Hyphenation: as?pire

Verb

aspire (third-person singular simple present aspires, present participle aspiring, simple past and past participle aspired)

1. (intransitive) To have a strong desire or ambition to achieve something.
   • c. 1612, William Shakespeare and John Fletcher, Henry VIII, Act III, Scene 2,^[1]

     There is, betwixt that smile we would aspire to,

     That sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin,

     More pangs and fears than wars or women have:

   • 1733, Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man, London: J. Wilford, Epistle 1, lines 131-132, p. 14,^[2]

     Aspiring to be Gods, if Angels fell,

     Aspiring to be Angels, Men rebell:

   • 1813, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, London: T. Egerton, Volume 3, Chapter 14, p. 246,^[3]

     This match, to which you have the presumption to aspire, can never take place.

   • 1969, Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, New York: Random House, Chapter 23, pp. 177-178,^[4]

     We were maids and farmers, handymen and washerwomen, and anything higher that we aspired to was farcical and presumptuous.

   • 2014, Damon Galgut, Arctic Summer, London: Atlantic Books, Chapter 2, p. 48,^[5]

     His own desire repulsed him. Though if he could not aspire to purity, then he was sufficiently aware of what his mother and certain others might think, not to give in to baseness.

2. (transitive, obsolete) To go as high as, to reach the top of (something).

   Synonyms: ascend, mount

   • c. 1594, William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act III, Scene 1,^[6]

     Mercutio’s dead! / That gallant spirit hath aspired the clouds,

   • c. 1608, George Chapman, The Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron, London: Thomas Thorppe, Act I, Scene 1,^[7]

     rockes so high / That birds could scarce aspire their ridgy toppes

   • c. 1613, John Fletcher, Bonduca, Act IV, Scene 4, in Comedies and Tragedies Written by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, London: Humphrey Robinson and Humphrey Moseley, p. 65,^[8]

     She’s vitious; and your partiall selves confesse, / aspires the height of all impietie:

3. (intransitive, archaic, literary) To move upward; to be very tall.

   Synonyms: ascend, rise, soar, tower

   • c. 1592, Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus, London: Thomas Bushell, 1604, [Scene 8],^[9]

     In midst of which a sumptuous Temple stands,

     That threats the starres with her aspiring toppe.

   • 1794, Ann Radcliffe, The Mysteries of Udolpho, London: G.G. and J. Robinson, Volume 1, Chapter 4, p. 116,^[10]

     As they descended, they saw […] one of the grand passes of the Pyreneáes into Spain, gleaming with its battlements and towers to the splendour of the setting rays, yellow tops of woods colouring the steeps below, while far above aspired the snowy points of the mountains, still reflecting a rosy hue.

   • 1844, Edgar Allan Poe, “Dream-Land” in Graham’s Magazine, Volume 25, No. 6, June, 1844, p. 256,^[11]

     Seas that restlessly aspire, / Surging, unto skies of fire;

   • 1979, Cormac McCarthy, Suttree, New York: Vintage, 1992, p. 4,^[12]

     There is a moonshaped rictus in the streetlamp’s globe where a stone has gone and from this aperture there drifts down through the constant helix of aspiring insects a faint and steady rain of the same forms burnt and lifeless.

Related terms

• aspirable
• aspiration
• aspirant
• aspirer
• aspiring

Translations

Anagrams

• Arispe, Parise, Pearis, Persia, paires, paries, praise, spirea

Asturian

Verb

aspire

1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive of aspirar

French

Verb

aspire

1. inflection of aspirer:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Anagrams

• paires, paries, pariés, repais

Galician

Verb

aspire

1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive of aspirar

Portuguese

Verb

aspire

1. first-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of aspirar
2. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present subjunctive of aspirar
3. third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of aspirar
4. third-person singular (você) negative imperative of aspirar

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [a?spire]

Verb

aspire

1. third-person singular present subjunctive of aspira
2. third-person plural present subjunctive of aspira

Spanish

Verb

aspire

1. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of aspirar.
2. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of aspirar.
3. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of aspirar.

English

Etymology

From Old French requerre (French: requérir), from Vulgar Latin *requærere, from Latin requ?r? (“I require, seek, ask for”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???kwa??/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /???kwa??/
• Rhymes: -a??(?)
• Hyphenation: re?quire

Verb

require (third-person singular simple present requires, present participle requiring, simple past and past participle required)

1. (obsolete) To ask (someone) for something; to request. [14^th-17^thc.]

   • I requyre yow lete vs be sworne to gyders that neuer none of vs shalle after this day haue adoo with other, and there with alle syre Tristram and sire Lamorak sware that neuer none of hem shold fyghte ageynst other nor for wele, nor for woo.

   • 1526, Bible, tr. William Tyndale, Mark V:

     I requyre the in the name of god, that thou torment me nott.

2. To demand, to insist upon (having); to call for authoritatively. [from 14^thc.]
   • 1998, Joan Wolf, The Gamble, Warner Books:

     "I am Miss Newbury," I announced, "and I require to be shown to my room immediately, if you please."

   • 2009, Vikram Dodd, The Guardian, 29 December:

     ‘Regrettably, I have concluded, after considering the matter over Christmas […], that I can no longer maintain the high standard of service I require of myself, meet the demands of office and cope with the pressures of public life, without my health deteriorating further.’

3. Naturally to demand (something) as indispensable; to need, to call for as necessary. [from 15^thc.]
   • 1972, "Aid for Aching Heads", Time, 5 June:

     Chronic pain is occasionally a sign of a very serious problem, like brain tumors, and can require surgery.

   • 2009, Julian Borger, The Guardian, 7 February:

     A weapon small enough to put on a missile would require uranium enriched to more than 90% U-235.

4. To demand of (someone) to do something. [from 18^thc.]
   • 1970, "Compulsory Midi", Time, 29 June:

     After Aug 3 all salesgirls will be required to wear only one style of skirt while on duty: the midi.

   • 2007, Allegra Stratton, "Smith to ban non-EU unskilled immigrants from working in UK", The Guardian, 5 December:

     The government would like to require non-British fiances who wish to marry a British citizen to sit an English test.

Synonyms

• call for

Related terms

• requirement
• requisite
• request

Translations

Further reading

• require in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• require in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• require at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• querier

Interlingua

Verb

require

1. present of requirer
2. imperative of requirer

Latin

Verb

requ?re

1. second-person singular present active imperative of requ?r?