Sternutare

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To sneeze or expel air forcibly through the nose and mouth as a reflex action
2. The act of expelling air suddenly from the lungs through the nasopharynx, often resulting in a sound
3. A sudden, involuntary contraction of the respiratory muscles leading to the ejection of air from the nasal and oral cavities

Etymology: Latin speakers used "sternutare" for a sneeze that came in fits rather than a single burst, which is why it is built as a frequentative: it takes the base "sternuere," meaning "to sneeze," and adds the verb-forming suffix "-tare," which signals repeated or vigorous action. The base verb is generally linked to the Greek "ptarnumai," also "to sneeze," though the exact connection between the two is debated. The Latin verb itself stayed in the learned vocabulary. Its noun, "sternutatio," gave English "sternutation," the formal term for sneezing, used mainly in medical and scholarly writing from around the 1600s. The related "sternutatory," for a substance that provokes sneezing, is a later English formation built on the same stem.