pneumonia

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin pneumonia (“inflammation of the lungs”), recorded from 1564 or earlier,^[2][3][4][5] and its source from Ancient Greek πνευμονία (pneumonía), used by Plutarch,^[2][6][4] formed on πνεύμων (pneúmōn, “lung”) with the noun suffix -ία (-ía).^[2][7][8] The Greek word for lung is an alteration of πλεύμων (pleúmōn), influenced by πνέω (pnéō, “to breathe”) and πνεῦμα (pneûma, “breath”);^{[6][4][5][9][10]} the older form is related to pulmō (“lung”), the source of pulmonary.^[9][4][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Inflammation of the lungs: 1603, in Philemon Holland's translation of Plutarch's Moralia,^[2][4][5] about 1600 in Etymonline.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline notes that the word named inflammation of the lung tissue itself, as distinct from that of the bronchial tubes or of the membrane around the lungs.^[3] Medicine later traced the disease chiefly to bacterial or viral infection,^[2][11] and the word is often used with a qualifying word naming its kind, such as lobar or double pneumonia.^[2][8] In early 20th-century slang a pneumonia blouse was a thin, low-necked blouse thought to expose its wearer to lung disease.^[12]

Timeline

• 1564 – Latin pneumonia in medical writing.^[2]
• 1603 – in Holland's Plutarch.^[2][4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Inflammation of one or both lungs, in which the air sacs fill with fluid, usually caused by bacterial or viral infection: He was admitted to hospital with pneumonia.

Word family

• bronchopneumonia
• pleuropneumonia
• double pneumonia
• lobar pneumonia
• walking pneumonia
• pneumocystis pneumonia

Related words

• pneumatic
• pneumonic
• pulmonary
• pleurisy

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com