sneeze
English
Etymology
From Middle English snesen (“to sneeze”), alteration of earlier fnesen (“to sneeze”), from Old English fnēosan (“to sneeze, snort”), from Proto-West Germanic *fneusan, from Proto-Germanic *fneusaną, from Proto-Indo-European *pnew- (“to breathe, pant, snort, sneeze”). Cognate with dialectal Dutch fniezen (“to sneeze”), Old Norse fnýsa (“to snort”).
Compare neeze, from Middle English nesen, from Old English *hnēosan (“to sneeze”), cognate with Old High German niosan (“to sneeze”), Old Norse hnjósa (“to sneeze”). See neeze.
It has been suggested that the change could be due to a misinterpretation of the uncommon initial sequence fn- as ſn- (sn- written with a long s),[1][2][3] although the change is regular, seen also in snore and snort from Middle English fnoren and fnorten, and in late Middle English snatted from earlier Middle English fnatted (“snub-nosed”). The fn- forms of all these words fell out of use in the 1400s.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /sniːz/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -iːz
Verb
sneeze (third-person singular simple present sneezes, present participle sneezing, simple past sneezed or (nonstandard) snoze, past participle sneezed or (nonstandard) snozen)
- (intransitive) To expel air as a reflex induced by an irritation in the nose.
- To avoid passing on your illness, you should sneeze into your sleeve.
- (intransitive) To expel air as if the nose were irritated.
- (transitive) To expel or displace (air, snot, etc) from the nose or mouth by the process above.
- 1924, Hugh Wiley, The Prowler, page 88:
- Lily shook her head violently and sneezed a large blue-bottle fly from where that insect had perched itself on the tip of her nose.
- 2010, Gunleen Deol, Sleepover Disaster, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 15:
- When I crossed the road, I sneezed a big achoo! My nose started to feel itchy.
- 2013, Sarah Hines-Stephens; Jane B. Mason, A Dog and His Girl Mysteries #2: Dead Man's Best Friend, Scholastic Inc., →ISBN:
- I sneezed a big sneeze. It was so big I hit my nose on the sidewalk. Bow-ow. There was a smell in my snout that I wanted to get rid of. And it wasn't Muffet's rotten soup odor, either. That was actually kind of delicious.
- 2014, Fowler DeWitt, The Contagious Colors of Mumpley Middle School, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 89:
- “Okay,”he said, and sneezed a large drop of pinkish goop. “But you better have a lot to eat! I'll race you upstairs!” Wilmer shook his head. Sherman's hyper energy level seemed to have increased, and that was saying a lot.
- 2017, Cressida Cowell, How to Train Your Dragon: How to Betray a Dragon's Hero, Hachette Children's, →ISBN:
- Toothless sneezed a large amount of dragon snot right in Hiccup's face.
- 1924, Hugh Wiley, The Prowler, page 88:
Synonyms
- (to expel air as a reflex): neeze, sternutate (medicine)
Derived terms
- nothing to sneeze at
- sneeze on the truth
- sneezeguard
- sneezeless
- sneezer
- sneezle
- sneeze-box
- sneezeweed
- sneezewood
- sneezewort
- sneezy
Translations
expel air as a reflex
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Noun
sneeze (plural sneezes)
- An act of sneezing.
- Synonyms: (medicine) sternutation, (medicine) ptarmus
- Jared's hay fever gives him terrible sneezes.
Translations
act of sneezing
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See also
- achoo
- bless you
References
- “sneeze”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
- Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “sneeze”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
- word histories: sneeze
Anagrams
- neezes