Sternutatory

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Relating to or causing the act of sneezing; pertaining to substances or stimuli that provoke a reflexive expulsion of air from the lungs through the nose and mouth
2. Connected with the reflex mechanism that results in a sudden, forceful nasal expulsion; associated with triggers or agents that induce this respiratory reaction
3. Involving the physiological response characterized by the involuntary ejection of air and particles from nasal passages; referring to factors that stimulate this protective reflex action

Etymology: Sternutatory comes straight from Latin "sternūtātōrius", built on the verb "sternuō", meaning "to sneeze". The Latin verb itself is an old one, and the adjective simply adds the suffix "-ory", which turns an action into something that brings it about. So a sternutatory agent is literally a thing that makes you sneeze. The word has been used in English mainly in medical and pharmacological writing, where it describes substances such as powdered snuffs or irritant compounds that were once deliberately applied to the nose to provoke sneezing. Physicians historically relied on such agents to clear the head or to induce a reaction for diagnostic purposes, and the term was the standard label for them. Because it is a learned borrowing rather than a word that grew up in everyday speech, it has stayed largely within technical and scholarly vocabulary, which is why most readers meet it only in old medical texts or dictionaries.

Synonyms: sneezing, sternutative