Respiratio

Respiratio is a Latin noun meaning the act of breathing. In medical and scientific contexts, it is commonly used to refer to the process by which organisms take in oxygen and release carbon dioxide. The term underlies the English word respiration and is often found in Latin or composite medical terms used in historical or international literature.

In modern biology and physiology, respiration is usually described as a sequence of stages: external respiration (ventilation and gas exchange between the air and the lungs), transport of gases by the circulatory system, and internal respiration (gas exchange between blood and body tissues). Cellular respiration—the biochemical conversion of glucose and other nutrients into ATP—proceeds within cells and yields energy for cellular work. The overall respiratory process is tightly regulated by the nervous and chemical control systems, with the brainstem guiding the rhythm of breathing and chemoreceptors monitoring levels of CO2 and O2.

Historically, “respiratio” appears in classical Latin medical texts and later European medical writings, often translating or conveying the concept of breath or respiration. Modern usage tends to prefer “respiration” in English, but “respiratio” remains encountered as a loanword in scholarly Latin texts and in discussions of historical anatomy and physiology.