dyspnea

English
WOTD – 6 April 2024

Etymology

Variant spelling of dyspnoea, a learned borrowing from Latin dyspnoea (“difficulty breathing”), from Ancient Greek δῠ́σπνοιᾰ (dúspnoia, “difficulty breathing, shortness of breath”), from δῠ́σπνοος (dúspnoos, “short of breath, breathing with difficulty”, adjective) (also δῠ́σπνους (dúspnous) by contraction) +‎ -ῐᾰ (-ia, suffix forming abstract nouns). Δῠ́σπνοος (Dúspnoos) is derived from δῠσ- (dus-, prefix meaning ‘bad; difficult, hard; unfortunate’) + πνέω (pnéō, “to blow; to breathe”) (from Proto-Indo-European *pnew- (“to breathe; to pant”)) + -ος (-os, suffix forming adjectives).[1] The English word is analysable as dys- (prefix meaning ‘abnormal; difficult; disease’) +‎ -pnea (suffix meaning ‘breathing, respiration’).

Pronunciation
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /dɪspˈniː.ə/
  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˈdɪsp.ni.ə/
  • Audio (GA)(file)
  • Rhymes: -iːə
  • Hyphenation: dys‧pnea

Noun

dyspnea (countable and uncountable, plural dyspneas) (American spelling, Canadian spelling)

  1. (pathology) Difficult or laboured respiration; shortness of breath.
    Synonym: breathlessness
    Coordinate terms: apnea, bradypnea, eupnea, hyperpnea, orthopnea, platypnea, polypnea, tachypnea, trepopnea
    • 1655, Lazarus Riverius [i.e., Lazare Rivière], “Of Asthma, or Difficulty of Breathing”, in Nicholas Culpeper, Abdiah Cole, and William Rowland, transl., The Practice of Physick, […], London: […] Peter Cole, […], →OCLC, 7th book (Of the Diseases of the Breast), page 148:
      In a Diſpnœa, the breath is thick, vvithout noiſe or anhelation, and vvith leſs trouble.
    • 1888, R[euben] Ludlam, “Lecture LIX. Ovariotomy.”, in Medical and Surgical Lectures on the Diseases of Women, a Clinical and Systematic Treatise. […], 6th edition, Chicago, Ill.: Halsey Brothers, →OCLC, page 962:
      During August the tumor again grew rapidly, causing dyspnœa, constipation and general malaise.

Alternative forms

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Translations

References
  1. Compare “dyspnoea, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “dyspnoea, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

Anagrams

Interlingua

Noun

dyspnea (uncountable)

  1. dyspnea
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