From Greek 'asthma' (panting), from 'azein' (to breathe hard) — a word capturing the sound of labored breathing, used by Hippocrates and Homer.
A chronic respiratory condition marked by spasms in the bronchi of the lungs, causing difficulty in breathing, typically triggered by allergies or other environmental factors.
From Latin "asthma," borrowed directly from Greek "asthma" (ἆσθμα) meaning "short breath, panting, gasping," from the verb "azein" (ἄζειν, to breathe hard, to blow). The Greek verb likely derives from Proto-Indo-European *h₂enh₁- (to breathe, to blow), though some linguists propose a connection to *h₂ews- (to draw water, related to breath as drawing in air). The PIE root *h₂enh₁- also produced Latin "animus" (spirit, mind — originally "breath"), Latin "anima" (soul, breath), Sanskrit "aniti" (he breathes), Old Irish "anál" (breath), Gothic "uzanan" (to exhale), and Old Norse "ǫnd" (breath, spirit). The conceptual equation of breath with spirit and
The 'th' in 'asthma' is one of English's most famously silent letter combinations — nobody pronounces /θ/ in the middle of the word. In ancient Greek, however, the theta in 'ἆσθμα' was pronounced as an aspirated 't,' more like 'ast-hma.' The spelling fossilizes a pronunciation that died two thousand years ago. Homer used the word in the Iliad to describe the gasping of warriors exhausted in battle.