quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- asthma[asthma 词源字典]
- asthma: [14] The original idea contained in asthma is that of ‘breathing hard’. The Greek noun asthma was derived from the verb ázein ‘breathe hard’ (related to áein ‘blow’, from which English gets air). In its earliest form in English it was asma, reflecting its immediate source in medieval Latin, and though the Greek spelling was restored in the 16th century, the word’s pronunciation has for the most part stuck with asma.
=> air[asthma etymology, asthma origin, 英语词源] - buffer
- buffer: Neither buffer ‘fellow’ [18] nor buffer ‘shock absorber’ [19] can be traced back with any certainty to a source, but the likeliest conjecture is that they both come (independently) from an obsolete English verb buff, which was probably originally (like puff) imitative of the sound of blowing or breathing out. The earliest recorded sense of this, in the late 13th century, was ‘stammer’, and so the human buffer may originally have been a ‘stammerer’. By the 16th century we find the verb being used in the sense ‘make the sound of something soft being hit’, which is a likely source of buffer ‘shock absorber’.
- cesspool
- cesspool: [17] Cesspool has no direct etymological connection with pool. It comes from Old French suspirail ‘ventilator, breathing hole’, a derivative of souspirer ‘breathe’ (this goes back to Latin suspīrāre, source of the archaic English suspire ‘sigh’). This was borrowed into English in the early 15th century as suspiral ‘drainpipe’, which in the subsequent two hundred years appeared in a variety of spellings, including cesperalle.
By the early 16th century we find evidence of its being used not just for a pipe to drain matter away, but also for a well or tank to receive matter thus drained (originally any effluent, not just sewage). The way was thus open for a ‘reinterpretation’ of the word’s final element as pool (by the process known as folk etymology), and in the late 17th century the form cesspool emerged.
By analogy, as if there were really a word cess ‘sewage’, the term cesspit was coined in the mid-19th century.
=> suspire - diphtheria
- diphtheria: [19] The disease diphtheria is characterized by the formation of a false membrane in the throat which obstructs breathing, and when the French physician Pierre Bretonneau described it in the 1820s, he coined a name for it based on Greek diphthéra, which means ‘piece of leather’. Using the suffix -itis, denoting inflammation, he formed the modern Latin term diphtheritis (used in English until the 1850s) and its French equivalent diphthérit.
He subsequently substituted diphthérie, and this was borrowed into and established in English in the late 1850s when an epidemic of the disease (then also termed Boulogne sore throat, from its first having been observed in Boulogne) struck Britain.
- dragon
- dragon: [13] English acquired dragon via Old French dragon and Latin dracō from Greek drákōn. Originally the word signified simply ‘snake’, but over the centuries this ‘snake’ increased in size, and many terrifying mythical attributes (such as wings and the breathing of fire) came to be added to it, several of them latterly from Chinese sources. The Greek form is usually connected with words for ‘look at, glance, flash, gleam’, such as Greek drakein and Sanskrit darç, as if its underlying meaning were ‘creature that looks at you (with a deadly glance)’. Dragon is second time around for English as far as this word is concerned: it originally came by it in the Old English period, via Germanic, as drake. Dragoons [17] (an adaptation of French dragon) were originally mounted infantry, so called because they carried muskets nicknamed by the French dragon ‘fire-breather’.
=> dragoon, drake, rankle - gill
- gill: English has three separate words gill. The oldest, gill ‘ravine’ [11], was borrowed from Old Norse gil, a word of unknown ancestry. Gill ‘fishes’ breathing organ’ [14] probably also comes from an Old Norse *gil, never actually recorded, but deduced from modern Swedish gäl and Danish gjælle ‘gill’. It may well go back to a prehistoric Indo-European source which also produced Greek kheilos ‘lip’. Gill ‘quarter of a pint’ [14] comes via Old French gille from medieval Latin gillo ‘water-pot’.
- quinsy
- quinsy: [14] Quinsy, a now virtually obsolete term for ‘sore throat’, has one of those etymologies that strain credulity to the limit. For it comes ultimately from a Greek term that meant literally ‘dog-strangling’. This was kunágkhē, a compound formed from kúōn ‘dog’ (a distant relative of English hound) and ágkhein ‘strangle’, which originally denoted a sort of throat infection of dogs, which impaired their breathing, and was subsequently extended to a similar complaint in humans. English acquired the word via medieval Latin quinancia and Old French quinencie.
=> hound - smell
- smell: [12] Smell is something of a mystery word. It is assumed to go back to an Old English *smiellan or *smyllan, but no such verb has been recorded, nor have any related forms in other languages been pin-pointed for certain. One theory links it with English smoulder [14] and the related Dutch smeulen ‘smoulder’, as if the notion of ‘smelling’ arose from the idea of breathing vapour or smoke through the nose.
- snapdragon
- snapdragon: [16] The herbalist John Gerard (no feminist, evidently) gave the reason why antirrhinums were called snapdragons: ‘The flowers [are] fashioned like a dragon’s mouth; from whence the women have taken the name Snapdragon’, Herbal 1597. The term was also used from the early 18th century for a party game which involved picking raisins out of a bowl of burning brandy and eating them while they were still alight – the allusion being of course to the dragon’s firebreathing habits.
- sneeze
- sneeze: [15] The Old English word for ‘sneeze’ was fnēsan, a distant relative of Greek pneuma ‘breath’ (source of English pneumatic). This survived into Middle English as fnese. The letters f and s were very similar in medieval script, so it could have played a part in the late 15th-century emergence of sneeze. Fnese had largely died out by the early 15th century, and it could well be that when printing got into full swing in the 1490s, with many old manuscript texts being reissued in printed form, printers unfamiliar with the old word fnese assumed it had the much more common initial consonant cluster sn-.
Another factor in the equation is the now obsolete verb neeze ‘sneeze’. This was borrowed in the 14th century from Old Norse hnósja, a descendant of the Indo-European base *ksneu-, which also produced German niesen, Dutch niezen, Swedish nysa, Danish nyse, and Russian chikhat’ ‘sneeze’. It bridged the gap between fnese and sneeze, and the new sneeze no doubt struck people as a more expressive alternative to the old neeze. (Both fnese and neeze go back ultimately to an imitation of the sound of breathing, blowing, or sneezing.)
=> pneumatic - snore
- snore: [14] Like snort [14] (which originally meant ‘snore’), snore goes back ultimately to a prehistoric Germanic base *snor-, imitative of the sound it represents. From the same source came German schnarchen ‘snore’, which produced the German dialect noun schnorchel ‘snout’. The mainstream language adopted it as a term for a ‘breathing tube’, and English borrowed it as snorkel [20].
=> snorkel, snort - spirit
- spirit: [13] Latin spīritus originally meant ‘breath’: it was derived from the verb spīrāre ‘breathe’ (source of English aspire [15], conspire [14], expire [15], inspire [14], perspire [17], respire [14], transpire [16], etc), which probably came ultimately from the prehistoric Indo-European base *speis- or *peis-, imitative of the sound of blowing or breathing out (source also of Old Church Slavonic piskati ‘whistle’, Serbo-Croat pistati ‘hiss’, and Old Norse físa ‘fart’).
But in the Augustan period it gradually began to take over as the word for ‘soul’ from anima (source of English animal, animate, etc), which itself originally denoted ‘breath’, and in Christian Latin writings it was the standard term used.
=> aspire, conspire, expire, inspire, perspire, respire, transpire - afflatus (n.)
- "miraculous communication of supernatural knowledge," 1660s, from Latin afflatus "a breathing upon, blast," from past participle of afflare "to blow upon," from ad- "to" (see ad-) + flare "to blow" (see blow (v.1)).
- air raid (n.)
- 1914, from air (n.1) + raid (n.); originally in reference to British attacks Sept. 22, 1914, on Zeppelin bases at Cologne and Düsseldorf in World War I. The German word is Fliegerangriff "aviator-attack," and if Old English had survived into the 20th century our word instead might be fleogendeongrype.
One didn't dare to inhale for fear of breathing it in. It was the sound of eighteen hundred airplanes approaching Hamburg from the south at an unimaginable height. We had already experienced two hundred or even more air raids, among them some very heavy ones, but this was something completely new. And yet there was an immediate recognition: this was what everyone had been waiting for, what had hung for months like a shadow over everything we did, making us weary. It was the end. [Hans Erich Nossack, "Der Untergang," 1942]
- apnea (n.)
- "suspension of breathing," also apnoea, 1719, Modern Latin, from Greek apnoia "absence of respiration," from apnos "without breathing," from a- "not" (see a- (3)) + pnein "to breathe" (see pneuma).
- asphyxia (n.)
- 1706, "stoppage of pulse, absence of pulse," from Modern Latin, from Greek asphyxia "stopping of the pulse," from a- "not" (see a- (3)) + sphyzein "to throb." Obsolete in its original sense; the transferred sense of "suffocation" is from 1778, but it is a "curious infelicity of etymology" [OED] because victims of suffocation have a pulse for some time after breathing has stopped.
- aspirate (n.)
- 1725, "sound of the letter 'H'," especially at the beginning of a word, from Latin aspiratio "a breathing, exhalation; the pronunciation of the letter H" (see aspire).
- aspiration (n.1)
- 1530s, "action of breathing into," from Latin aspirationem (nominative aspiratio) "a breathing on, a blowing upon; rough breathing; influence," noun of action from past participle stem of aspirare (see aspire). Meaning "steadfast longing for a higher goal, earnest desire for something above one" is recorded from c. 1600 (sometimes collectively, as aspirations).
- breathe (v.)
- c. 1300, not in Old English, but it retains the original Old English vowel of its source word, breath. Related: Breathed; breathing.
- breather (n.)
- c. 1600, "a living creature, one who breathes," agent noun from breathe. Meaning "spell of exercise to stimulate breathing" is from 1836; that of "a rest to recover breath" is from 1901.
- expiration (n.)
- early 15c., "vapor, breath," from Middle French expiration, from Latin expirationem/exspirationem (nominative expiratio/exspiratio) "a breathing out, exhalation," noun of action from past participle stem of expirare/exspirare "breathe out; breathe one's last" (see expire). Meaning "termination, end, close" is from 1560s.
- fire (n.)
- Old English fyr "fire, a fire," from Proto-Germanic *fur-i- (cognates: Old Saxon fiur, Old Frisian fiur, Old Norse fürr, Middle Dutch and Dutch vuur, Old High German fiur, German Feuer "fire"), from PIE *perjos, from root *paəwr- "fire" (cognates: Armenian hur "fire, torch," Czech pyr "hot ashes," Greek pyr, Umbrian pir, Sanskrit pu, Hittite pahhur "fire"). Current spelling is attested as early as 1200, but did not fully displace Middle English fier (preserved in fiery) until c. 1600.
PIE apparently had two roots for fire: *paewr- and *egni- (source of Latin ignis). The former was "inanimate," referring to fire as a substance, and the latter was "animate," referring to it as a living force (compare water (n.1)).
Brend child fuir fordredeþ ["The Proverbs of Hendyng," c. 1250]
English fire was applied to "ardent, burning" passions or feelings from mid-14c. Meaning "discharge of firearms, action of guns, etc." is from 1580s. To be on fire is from c. 1500 (in fire attested from c. 1400, as is on a flame "on fire"). To play with fire in the figurative sense "risk disaster, meddle carelessly or ignorantly with a dangerous matter" is by 1861, from the common warning to children. Phrase where's the fire?, said to one in an obvious hurry, is by 1917, American English.
Fire-bell is from 1620s; fire-alarm as a self-acting, mechanical device is from 1808 as a theoretical creation; practical versions began to appear in the early 1830s. Fire-escape (n.) is from 1788 (the original so-called was a sort of rope-ladder disguised as a small settee); fire-extinguisher is from 1826. A fire-bucket (1580s) carries water to a fire. Fire-house is from 1899; fire-hall from 1867, fire-station from 1828. Fire company "men for managing a fire-engine" is from 1744, American English. Fire brigade "firefighters organized in a body in a particular place" is from 1838. Fire department, usually a branch of local government, is from 1805. Fire-chief is from 1877; fire-ranger from 1909.
Symbolic fire and the sword is by c. 1600 (translating Latin flamma ferroque absumi); earlier yron and fyre (1560s), with suerd & flawme (mid-15c.), mid fure & mid here ("with fire and armed force"), c. 1200. Fire-breathing is from 1590s. To set the river on fire, "accomplish something surprising or remarkable" (usually with a negative and said of one considered foolish or incompetent) is by 1830, often with the name of a river, varying according to locality, but the original is set the Thames on fire (1796). The hypothetical feat was mentioned as the type of something impossibly difficult by 1720; it circulated as a theoretical possibility under some current models of chemistry c. 1792-95, which may have contributed to the rise of the expression.
[A]mong other fanciful modes of demonstrating the practicability of conducting the gas wherever it might be required, he anchored a small boat in the stream about 50 yards from the shore, to which he conveyed a pipe, having the end turned up so as to rise above the water, and forcing the gas through the pipe, lighted it just above the surface, observing to his friends "that he had now set the river on fire." ["On the Origins and Progress of Gas-lighting," in "Repertory of Patent Inventions," vol. III, London, 1827]
- flatulent (adj.)
- "affected by digestive gas," 1590s, from Middle French flatulent (16c.), from Modern Latin flatulentus, from Latin flatus "a blowing, breathing, snorting; a breaking wind," past participle of flare "to blow, puff," which is cognate with Old English blawan (see blow (v.1)).
- gill (n.1)
- "organ of breathing in fishes," early 14c., of unknown origin, perhaps related to Scandinavian words, such as Old Norse gjölnar which perhaps means "gills," and Old Danish -gæln (in fiske-gæln "fish gill"); said to be ultimately from a PIE *ghel-una- "jaw" (cognate: Greek kheilos "lip"). Related: Gills.
- inspiration (n.)
- c. 1300, "immediate influence of God or a god," especially that under which the holy books were written, from Old French inspiracion "inhaling, breathing in; inspiration," from Late Latin inspirationem (nominative inspiratio), noun of action from past participle stem of Latin inspirare "inspire, inflame, blow into," from in- "in" (see in- (2)) + spirare "to breathe" (see spirit). Literal sense "act of inhaling" attested in English from 1560s. Meaning "one who inspires others" is attested by 1867.
- journalism (n.)
- 1821, regarded as a French word at first, from French journalisme (1781), from journal (see journal).
Journalism will kill you, but it will keep you alive while you're at it. [Horace Greely (1811-1872), U.S. journalist]
Journalese "language typical of newspaper articles or headlines" is from 1882.
Where men are insulated they are easily oppressed; when roads become good, and intercourse is easy, their force is increased more than a hundred fold: when, without personal communication, their opinions can be interchanged, and the people thus become one mass, breathing one breath and one spirit, their might increases in a ratio of which it is difficult to find the measure or the limit. Journalism does this office .... ["New Monthly Magazine," London, 1831]
[Géo] London was in western France covering the trial of a parricide that began in mid-afternoon. Because he had an early deadline, he telephoned a story that he was certain would take place: an angry crowd cursing the accused as he was marched to the courthouse from his holding cell at the police station. London then relaxed over lunch until he saw with dismay the guards and the prisoner coming but "not even the shadow of a gawker." His reputation at stake, he stalked to the door, cried out, "Kill him!" and returned to his table. [Benjamin F. Martin, "France in 1938"]
- pant (v.)
- mid-15c., perhaps a shortening of Old French pantaisier "gasp, puff, pant, be out of breath, be in distress" (12c.), probably from Vulgar Latin *pantasiare "be oppressed with a nightmare, struggle for breathing during a nightmare," literally "to have visions," from Greek phantasioun "have or form images, subject to hallucinations," from phantasia "appearance, image, fantasy" (see phantasm). Related: Panted; panting.
- pneuma (n.)
- used in English in various sense, from Greek pneuma "a blowing, a wind, blast; breeze; influence; breathed air, breath; odor, scent; spirit of a person; inspiration, a spirit, ghost," from pnein "to blow, to breathe," from PIE root *pneu- "to breathe," of imitative origin (compare Greek pnoe "breath," pnoia "breathing;" Old English fnora "sneezing," fnæran "to snort").
- pooped (adj.)
- "tired," 1931, of unknown origin, perhaps imitative of the sound of heavy breathing from exhaustion (compare poop (n.2)). But poop, poop out were used in 1920s in aviation, of an engine, "to die." Also there is a verb poop, of ships, "to be overwhelmed by a wave from behind," often with catastrophic consequences (see poop (n.1)); hence in figurative nautical use, "to be overcome and defeated" (attested in 1920s).
It is an easy thing to "run"; the difficulty is to know when to stop. There is always the possibility of being "pooped," which simply means being overtaken by a mountain of water and crushed into the depths out of harm's way for good and all. [Ralph Stock, "The Cruise of the Dream Ship," 1921]
- respiration (n.)
- late 14c., from Latin respirationem (nominative respiratio) "breathing, respiration," noun of action from past participle stem of respirare (see respire).
- respirator (n.)
- 1836, as an aid to breathing (originally a sort of gauze mask, agent noun from respire. As "machine to provide artificial respiration" from 1929.
- scuba
- 1952, acronym for self-contained underwater breathing apparatus.
- shallow (adj.)
- c. 1400, schalowe "not deep," probably from or related to Old English sceald (see shoal (n.)). Of breathing, attested from 1875; of thought or feeling, "superficial," first recorded 1580s. The noun, usually shallows, is first recorded 1570s, from the adjective.
- sneeze (v.)
- late 15c., from Old English fneosan "to snort, sneeze," from Proto-Germanic *fneusanan (compare: Middle Dutch fniesen, Dutch fniezen "to sneeze;" Old Norse fnysa "to snort;" Old Norse hnjosa, Swedish nysa "to sneeze;" Old High German niosan, German niesen "to sneeze"), from Proto-Germanic base *fneu-s- "sneeze," of imitative origin, as is PIE *pneu- "to breathe" (source of Greek pnein "to breathe").
Other imitative words for it, perhaps in various ways related to each other, include Latin sternuere (source of Italian starnutare, French éternuer, Spanish estornudar), Breton strevia, Sanskrit ksu-, Lithuanian čiaudeti, Polish kichać, Russian čichat'.
English forms in sn- might be due to a misreading of the uncommon fn- (represented in only eight words in Clark Hall, mostly in words to do with breathing), or from Norse influence. OED suggests Middle English fnese had been reduced to simple nese by early 15c., and sneeze is a "strengthened form" of this, "assisted by its phonetic appropriateness." Related: Sneezed; sneezing. To sneeze at "to regard as of little value" (usually with negative) is attested from 1806. - spiracle (n.)
- "air hole," 1610s, from Latin spiraculum "breathing hole," from spirare "to breathe" (see spirit (n.)). Related: Spiracular.
- spirant (n.)
- breathy consonant, 1862, from Latin spirantem (nominative spirans) "breathing," present participle of spirare "to breathe, blow" (see spirit (n.)).
- spirit (n.)
- mid-13c., "animating or vital principle in man and animals," from Anglo-French spirit, Old French espirit "spirit, soul" (12c., Modern French esprit) and directly from Latin spiritus "a breathing (respiration, and of the wind), breath; breath of a god," hence "inspiration; breath of life," hence "life;" also "disposition, character; high spirit, vigor, courage; pride, arrogance," related to spirare "to breathe," from PIE *(s)peis- "to blow" (cognates: Old Church Slavonic pisto "to play on the flute").
Meaning "supernatural immaterial creature; angel, demon; an apparition, invisible corporeal being of an airy nature" is attested from mid-14c.; from late 14c. as "a ghost" (see ghost (n.)). From c. 1500 as "a nature, character"; sense of "essential principle of something" (in a non-theological context, as in Spirit of St. Louis) is attested from 1680s, common after 1800; Spirit of '76 in reference to the qualities that sparked and sustained the American Revolution is attested by 1797 in William Cobbett's "Porcupine's Gazette and Daily Advertiser."
From late 14c. in alchemy as "volatile substance; distillate;" from c. 1500 as "substance capable of uniting the fixed and the volatile elements of the philosopher's stone." Hence spirits "volatile substance;" sense narrowed to "strong alcoholic liquor" by 1670s. This also is the sense in spirit level (1768). Also from mid-14c. as "character, disposition; way of thinking and feeling, state of mind; source of a human desire;" in Middle English freedom of spirit meant "freedom of choice." From late 14c. as "divine substance, divine mind, God;" also "Christ" or His divine nature; "the Holy Ghost; divine power;" also, "extension of divine power to man; inspiration, a charismatic state; charismatic power, especially of prophecy." Also "essential nature, essential quality." From 1580s in metaphoric sense "animation, vitality."
According to Barnhart and OED, originally in English mainly from passages in Vulgate, where the Latin word translates Greek pneuma and Hebrew ruah. Distinction between "soul" and "spirit" (as "seat of emotions") became current in Christian terminology (such as Greek psykhe vs. pneuma, Latin anima vs. spiritus) but "is without significance for earlier periods" [Buck]. Latin spiritus, usually in classical Latin "breath," replaces animus in the sense "spirit" in the imperial period and appears in Christian writings as the usual equivalent of Greek pneuma. Spirit-rapping is from 1852. - spiritual (adj.)
- c. 1300, "of or concerning the spirit" (especially in religious aspects), from Old French spirituel, esperituel (12c.) or directly from a Medieval Latin ecclesiastical use of Latin spiritualis "of or pertaining to breath, breathing, wind, or air; pertaining to spirit," from spiritus "of breathing, of the spirit" (see spirit (n.)). Meaning "of or concerning the church" is attested from mid-14c. Related: Spiritually. An Old English word for "spiritual" was godcundlic.
In avibus intellige studia spiritualia, in animalibus exercitia corporalia [Richard of St. Victoror (1110-1173): "Watch birds to understand how spiritual things move, animals to understand physical motion." - E.P.]
- tachypnea (n.)
- "hysterical rapid breathing," 1896, from tachy- "swift" + -pnea, from pnein "to breathe" (see pneuma). Related: Tachypneic.
- vent (n.)
- c. 1400, "anus," from Old French vent from verb eventer (see vent (v.)) and in part from Middle English aventer, from the French verb. Perhaps also merged with or influenced by Middle English fent "opening or slit in a the front of a garment (usually held closed with a brooch)," c. 1400, from Old French fente, from Latin findere "to split" (see fissure). Meaning "outlet for water," also "air hole, breathing hole" is from mid-15c. Meaning "action of venting" is recorded from c. 1500.
- wind (n.1)
- "air in motion," Old English wind "wind," from Proto-Germanic *windaz (cognates: Old Saxon, Old Frisian, Middle Dutch, Dutch wind, Old Norse vindr, Old High German wind, German Wind, Gothic winds), from PIE *we-nt-o- "blowing," from root *we- "to blow" (cognates: Sanskrit va-, Greek aemi-, Gothic waian, Old English wawan, Old High German wajan, German wehen, Old Church Slavonic vejati "to blow;" Sanskrit vatah, Avestan vata-, Hittite huwantis, Latin ventus, Old Church Slavonic vetru, Lithuanian vejas "wind;" Lithuanian vetra "tempest, storm;" Old Irish feth "air;" Welsh gwynt, Breton gwent "wind").
Normal pronunciation evolution made this word rhyme with kind and rind (Donne rhymes it with mind), but it shifted to a short vowel 18c., probably from influence of windy, where the short vowel is natural. A sad loss for poets, who now must rhyme it only with sinned and a handful of weak words. Symbolic of emptiness and vanity since late 13c.
I have forgot much, Cynara! gone with the wind. [Ernest Dowson, 1896]
Meaning "breath" is attested from late Old English; especially "breath in speaking" (early 14c.), so long-winded, also "easy or regular breathing" (early 14c.), hence second wind in the figurative sense (by 1830), an image from the sport of hunting.
Winds "wind instruments of an orchestra" is from 1876. Figurative phrase which way the wind blows for "the current state of affairs" is suggested from c. 1400. To get wind of "receive information about" is by 1809, perhaps inspired by French avoir le vent de. To take the wind out of (one's) sails in the figurative sense (by 1883) is an image from sailing, where a ship without wind can make no progress. Wind-chill index is recorded from 1939. Wind energy from 1976. Wind vane from 1725. - bated
- "In great suspense; very anxiously or excitedly", Late 16th century: from the past participle of obsolete bate 'restrain', from abate.
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A shortened form of abated (Middle English), meaning ‘reduced, lessened’. The idea behind the phrase with bated breath is that the anxiety or excitement you experience while waiting for something to happen is so great that you almost stop breathing. The word is sometimes spelled baited, from a mistaken association with a fisherman's bait. It came from the Old French abattre ‘to fell’, from Latin ad ‘to, at’ and batt(u)ere ‘to beat’ which is also the source of abattoir, which to some extent replaced the medieval term slaughterhouse in the early 19th century.
- dyspnoea
- "Difficult or laboured breathing", Mid 17th century: via Latin from Greek duspnoia, from dus- 'difficult' + pnoē 'breathing'.
- apnoea
- "Temporary cessation of breathing, especially during sleep", Early 18th century: modern Latin, from Greek apnoia, from apnous 'breathless'.
- adenoids
- "A mass of enlarged lymphatic tissue between the back of the nose and the throat, often hindering speaking and breathing in young children", Late 19th century: adenoid from Greek adēn 'gland' + -oid.
- Ayurveda
- "The traditional Hindu system of medicine (incorporated in Atharva Veda, the last of the four Vedas), which is based on the idea of balance in bodily systems and uses diet, herbal treatment, and yogic breathing", From Sanskrit āyus 'life' + veda '(sacred) knowledge'.