> "In German, to breathe is just a verb: atmen"
There's an interesting rabbit hole to go down for English words from Latin "spirare" - to breathe, and how it connects air and breath of life, spirituality. We get respiration (re-spire, re-breathing), inspire (blowing on something, figuratively breathing life/fire into it), expire (breathing out the last breath of life), spirit (a vital substance of life), conspire (to breathe together, speak similar thoughts).
https://www.etymonline.com/word/respire
https://www.etymonline.com/word/inspire
https://www.etymonline.com/word/spirit
etc. Words that were almost literal Latin that are now more figurative English based on a sort of French / medieval version of the Latin version. [edit: just remembering that the rather Germanic and plain "Breathe on me breath of God" used to give me the image of someone going "huuuhhh" on their spectacles before polishing them. The next bit is "till all this earthly part of me Glows with thy fire divine" so it is supposed to be exciting and soul-sparking. I only feel the poetic imagery of "fill me with life, blow on the embers of my soul, oh life giving wind-deity", through Romance *spire* words not Anglish *breath* words. "inspire my spirit(2) through respiration, you spiritual spirit(1)"]
Of course, the association between moving air and the supernatural is not constrained to latin but seems to be pretty universal. The connection between breath and life is obvious, and so we have god “breathe life into” Adam’s still lifeless clay form. But even at the very beginning of Genesis, god himself is described in hebrew as a “wind” or “breath”. I’m sure many more and older languages feature these conflations, and the jews probably carried them over from earlier semitic cultures.
> In German, to breathe is just a verb: atmen
If you want to go down the Proto-Indo-European rabbit hole, the Sanskrit word for soul is atman.
Inspiration, also!