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Origin and history of sternutation

sternutation(n.)

"act of snoring," 1540s, from Late Latin sternutationem (nominative sternutatio) "a sneezing," noun of action from past-participle stem of Latin sternutare, frequentative of sternuere (see sneeze (v.)). Related: Sternutory (early 15c.), sternutatory; sternutative.

also from 1540s

Entries linking to sternutation

sneeze(v.)

late 15c., snesen, from or replacing fnesen, which is Old English fneosan "to snort, sneeze," from Proto-Germanic *fneusanan. Compare: Middle Dutch fniesen, Dutch fniezen "to sneeze;" Old Norse fnysa "to snort;" Old Norse hnjosa, Swedish nysa "to sneeze;" Old High German niosan, German niesen "to sneeze," all from Proto-Germanic base *fneu-s- "sneeze," which is of imitative origin, as is PIE *pneu- "to breathe" (source of Greek pnein "to breathe").

Other imitative words for it, perhaps in various ways shaped by one another, include Latin sternuere (source of Italian starnutare, French éternuer, Spanish estornudar), Breton strevia, Sanskrit ksu-, Lithuanian čiaudėti, Polish kichać, Russian čichat'.

The Middle English shift to sn- might be due to a misreading of the uncommon digraph fn- (represented in only eight words in the Clark Hall dictionary, mostly words having to do with breathing), or from Norse influence. But OED suggests it wasn't a direct evolution, and that Middle English fnese had been reduced to simple nese by early 15c., and sneeze is a "strengthened form" of this, "assisted by its phonetic appropriateness." Related: Sneezed; sneezer; sneezing.

To sneeze at "show contempt for, regard as of little value" (usually with negative) is attested from 1806. To teach (one) how the cat sneezes apparently was an old phrase for "to dominate, bully."

Off þat ʒong gentil man was a gret disese
After a ʒere or two his wyfe he myʒt not pleese
... Sche tauʒt hym euer among how the katte did snese.
[from "Tale of the Basin," c. 1500]
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    symptom
    "a departure from normal function or form as an expression or evidence of a disease," late 14c., sinthoma, from Medieval Latin sinthoma "symptom of a disease," altered from Late Latin symptoma, from Greek symptoma "a happening, accident, disease," from stem of sympiptein "to befa
    reflex
    c. 1500, "reflection of light, image produced by reflection," from a verb reflex meaning "refract, deflect" (late 14c.; compare reflect), from Late Latin reflexus "a bending back," noun use of past participle of reflectere "to bend back, bend backwards, turn away," from re- "back
    inchoate
    "recently or just begun," 1530s, from Latin inchoatus, past participle of inchoare, alteration of incohare "commence, begin," probably originally "to hitch up," traditionally derived from in- "in" (from PIE root *en "in") + a verb from cohum "strap (fastened to the oxen's yoke),"
    obvious
    1580s, "frequently met with" (a sense now obsolete), from Latin obvius "that is in the way, presenting itself readily, open, exposed, commonplace," from obviam (adv.) "in the way," from ob "in front of, against" (see ob-) + viam, accusative of via "way" (from PIE root *wegh- "to
    sanctuary
    early 14c., seintuarie, sentwary, etc., "consecrated place, building set apart for holy worship; holy or sacred object," from Anglo-French sentuarie, Old French saintuaire "sacred relic, holy thing; reliquary, sanctuary," from Late Latin sanctuarium "a sacred place, shrine" (espe
    adamant
    late 14c., "hard, unbreakable," from adamant (n.). The figurative sense of "unshakeable" (in belief, etc.) is by 1670s. Related: Adamantly; adamance...."a very hard stone," mid-14c., adamant, adamaunt, from Old French adamant "diamond; magnet" or directly from Latin adamantem (no
    orange
    late 14c., in reference to the fruit of the orange tree (late 13c. as a surname), from Old French orange, orenge (12c., Modern French orange), from Medieval Latin pomum de orenge, from Italian arancia, originally narancia (Venetian naranza), an alteration of Arabic naranj, from P
    Injun
    1812 (from 1683 as Ingin), a spelling representing the early American English colloquial pronunciation of Indian (q.v.). Honest Injun as an asseveration of truthfuless is first recorded 1868, from the notion of assurance extracted from Indians of their lack of duplicity in a part
    lie
    "speak falsely, tell an untruth for the purpose of misleading," Middle English lien, from Old English legan, ligan, earlier leogan "deceive, belie, betray" (class II strong verb; past tense leag, past participle logen), from Proto-Germanic *leuganan (source also of Old Norse ljug
    goal
    1530s, "end point of a race," of uncertain origin. It appears once before this (as gol), in a poem from early 14c. and with an apparent sense of "boundary, limit." Perhaps from Old English *gal "obstacle, barrier," a word implied by gælan "to hinder" and also found in compounds (

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