apnea

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin apnoea,^[2][3][4][5] from Ancient Greek ἄπνοια (ápnoia, “absence of breathing”),^[2][3][6] from ἄπνοος (ápnoos, “breathless”),^[2][6][7] from ἀ- (a-, “not, without”) and πνέω (pnéō, “to breathe”).^[6][3][5] Wiktionary instead takes the second part as πνοή (pnoḗ, “breathing”),^[1] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged analyses the word as a- and -pnea.^[8] The Greek verb is also the source of pneuma.^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Suspension of breathing: 1719, in the second edition of the Glossographia Anglicana Nova, in the spelling apnoea.^[2][3][8]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline notes that the word was first, and until recently most often, spelled apnoea.^[3] In medicine it means any pause in breathing, whether normal, as in hibernating animals, or caused by drugs or disease, and also asphyxia.^[8] In current use it most often refers to sleep apnea, recorded from 1975,^[8][5] in which breathing stops briefly and repeatedly during sleep.^[8]

Timeline

• 1719 – suspension of breathing, as apnoea.^[2][3][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A temporary stop in breathing, especially during sleep: The monitor sounded an alarm during each apnea.^[8][9][2]
2. Asphyxia.^[8]

Word family

• apneic
• apneal
• sleep apnea

Related words

• hypopnea
• pneuma

Usage notes

The British spelling is apnoea.^[9][10][2]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press