suffocation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English suffocacioun,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French suffocation and directly borrowed from Latin suffōcātiō (“a choking, stifling”),^[3][2][4] a noun of action from suffōcō (“to suffocate, throttle, stifle”),^[3][5][6] which originally meant to narrow up and is formed from sub- (“up from under”) and faucēs (“throat, narrow entrance”),^[3] also the source of faucet.^[3] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from the early 13th century for stifling and for hysteria.^[7] The OED treats the English word as a borrowing from Latin and compares French suffocation.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Obstruction of the breath, choking: before 1400, in Lanfranc, which speaks of letting blood from the veins in the neck for fear of suffocacioun of blood.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to the late 14th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Middle English medical texts used suffocacioun of the matris or of the moder for an ailment blamed on the rising of the womb, which pressed on the heart and lungs.^[2] The OED records this suffocation of the womb, after medical Latin suffocatio hysterica or uterina, until 1719,^[5] and the Shorter Oxford glosses it as hysteria.^[4] The general sense, the act of suffocating or the state of being suffocated, is dated in the OED from 1583,^[5] and a transferred and figurative use from 1567.^[5] Johnson (1755) defined it as "the act of choaking; the state of being choaked", with a quotation from Bacon.^[8]

Timeline

• before 1400 – obstruction of the breath, choking.^[2]
• before 1425 – suffocacion of the modyre, an ailment attributed to the womb (obsolete by 1719).^[2][5]
• 1567 – in transferred and figurative use.^[5]
• 1583 – the act of suffocating or condition of being suffocated.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of suffocating, or the state of being suffocated; death or distress from lack of air: The miners faced suffocation when the shaft collapsed.^[9][5][4]
2. A feeling of being stifled or oppressed; figurative use.^[5]
3. (obsolete) suffocation of the womb: hysteria, thought to be caused by the womb pressing on the lungs.^[5][4][2]

Related words

• suffocate
• asphyxia
• faucet

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster