anhelation

See also: anhélation

English

WOTD – 5 March 2023

Etymology

From French anhélation, or directly from its etymon Latin anhēlātiō (“shortness of breath, gasping, panting, puffing”) (compare Late Latin anhēlātiō (“desire; eager pursuit”)), from anhēlātus (“exhaled”) + -iō (suffix forming abstract nouns from verbs). Anhēlātus is the perfect passive participle of anhēlō (“to breathe out, exhale; to draw breath with difficulty, gasp, pant, puff”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ænhɪˈleɪʃn̩/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌænhəˈleɪʃən/
• Rhymes: -eɪʃən
• Hyphenation: an‧hel‧at‧ion

Noun

anhelation (countable and uncountable, plural anhelations)

1. (uncountable, pulmonology, archaic) Breathing difficulty, shortness of breath.

   Synonyms: breathlessness, (North American spelling) dyspnea, (British spelling) dyspnoea

   • 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.

2. (figuratively, obsolete)
   1. (uncountable) Mental or spiritual agitation.
   2. (uncountable) Followed by after or for: eager desire; (countable) an instance of this.
      • 1619 April 28, John Donne, “A Sermon of Valediction at My Going into Germany, at L[i]ncolns-Inne, April. 18. 1619. [Julian calendar] Sermon XIX.”, in XXVI. Sermons (Never before Publish’d) Preached by that Learned and Reverend Divine John Donne, […], London: […] Thomas Newcomb, […], published 1661, →OCLC, page 278:

        [T]ruſt not upon that rule, that men buy cheapeſt at the end of the market, that heaven may be had for a breath at laſt, vvhen they that hear it cannot tel vvhether it be a ſigh or a gaſp, a religious breathing and anhelation after the next life, or natural breathing out, and exhalation of this; but find a ſpiritual good husbandry in that other rule, that the prime of the market is to be had at firſt: […]

Related terms

• anhelant (obsolete)
• anhele (obsolete)
• anheled (adjective) (obsolete)
• anhelose (archaic)
• anhelous (archaic)

Translations

breathing difficulty — see also shortness of breath

• Catalan: anhelació f
• French: anhélation (fr) f
• Ido: anhelo (io), anhelado (io)
• Latin: anhēlātiō f
• Middle French: anhelation ?
• Portuguese: anhelação f (obsolete), anelação f
• Spanish: anhelación f
• Welsh: diffyg anadl m

Further reading

• shortness of breath on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• ailanthone