Secret plans by groups of people to do something unlawful or harmful; theories alleging such secret plots behind events.
From Latin 'conspirare' meaning 'to breathe together,' composed of 'con-' (together) and 'spirare' (to breathe). The metaphor suggested people so closely united they shared breath, evolving from neutral cooperation to secretive plotting by the 14th century.
The beautiful original image of breathing together shows how conspiracy once implied intimate unity and shared purpose. It's ironic that a word born from the most basic shared human act—breathing—came to represent secretive betrayal and paranoid thinking in modern discourse.
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