Breathalyses

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Measures the amount of alcohol in someone's blood by having them breathe into a portable testing device
2. Checks how much alcohol a driver has consumed by analysing a sample of their breath
3. Tests a person for intoxication by examining the alcohol content of the breath they exhale

Etymology: "Breathalyses" is the third-person singular present form of "breathalyse", so its history is that of the verb. The verb is a back-formation from "breathalyser", the name of the device used to measure alcohol in a person's breath. In other words, the machine came first, and the verb was created later by shaving off what looked like its ending and treating the remainder as a root. The noun "breathalyser" was built from "breath" and the suffix "-lyser", a form of the "-lyser" element that appears in words meaning to break down or analyse something, as in "analyser". Combining the everyday word for breath with that element produced a name that describes a device analysing a breath sample. The verb then followed the reverse path: speakers took "breathalyse" as the basic action and derived the device from it, so a driver could be said to be breathalysed by police and the test itself was a breathalysis.

Synonyms: breathalyzes, tests