Etymologically
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asthma

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈasmə/, /ˈasθmə/[1]
  • US: /ˈæzmə/, /ˈæzðmə/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English asma,[2][3][4] borrowed from Medieval Latin asma,[2][5][6][7] from Ancient Greek ἆσθμα (âsthma, “shortness of breath, panting”),[8][4][9] from ἄζω (ázō, “to breathe hard”).[8][4][10][11] Barnhart thinks the borrowing may have been helped by asmat.[3] The Greek noun is probably related to ἄνεμος (ánemos, “wind”),[4][3][9] from Proto-Indo-European *ane- (“to breathe”),[4] which also gave animus (“breath, spirit”).[9][12] The letters th were put back into the English spelling in the 16th century to match the Latin and Greek form,[4][3][12] but the pronunciation has stayed asma.[12][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Difficulty in breathing, especially as a disease: before 1398, in John Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus's De Proprietatibus Rerum, in the form asma.[8][3]

Semantic evolution

The underlying idea, according to Ayto, is "breathing hard".[12] The word has kept its meaning: at first a general name for laboured breathing, it came to mean especially a disease with attacks of wheezing and a tight chest.[8][7] Johnson (1755) described it as frequent, short and difficult breathing with a hissing sound and a cough, worse at night.[13] Modern dictionaries describe it as a chronic disorder of the airways, often of allergic origin.[10][5][7] The adjective asthmatic is recorded from 1542.[14]

Timeline

  • before 1398 – asma, difficult breathing.[8][3]
  • 1542 – asthmatic.[14]
  • 16th century – the spelling with th.[4][3]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A long-lasting disorder of the lungs, often caused by allergy, in which the airways narrow from time to time, causing wheezing, coughing and difficulty in breathing: She always carries an inhaler because of her asthma.

Word family

  • asthmatic
  • asthmatically
  • antiasthmatic

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  12. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  14. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins