Strangour

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A feeble, strained cry or voice produced by a person who is dying or very weak ; the labored, rasping sound of breathing as life ebbs away
2. A faint, hoarse, strangled utterance made by someone near death ; the painful, gasping noise of a failing breath in the final stage of illness
3. The weak, choked voice of a person sinking toward death ; a harsh, laboured wheezing of breath that marks the last hours of a dying body

Etymology: The word is rare, and its exact history is uncertain. Its shape suggests a link to "strangle", which comes from Greek "strangalē", a noose or halter, and to "strangury", a medical term for painful, difficult urination. Both point to the idea of constriction, which fits a voice choked down to a thin, failing sound. Because the word is so uncommon, the evidence for its path into English is thin, and it is safest to treat any specific pathway as a likely guess rather than a settled fact. Its sense, a faint and dying voice, is clear enough, and it is the sense that has survived.