--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Rick McCallister <gabaroo6958@...> wrote:
>
> Re asthma, online compact OED has
>
> asthma
> /asm/
>
> noun a medical condition marked by difficulty in
> breathing.
>
> DERIVATIVES asthmatic adjective & noun.
>
> ORIGIN Greek, from azein `breathe hard'.
It seems clear there were Greek words:
*adzehen 'to go "a"'
*hadzehen 'to go "ha"'
with "a" an exclamation of surprise, injury, etc.; and "ha" a breath;
they extended their meaning metaphorically, mixing (helped by Ion.
h>0, etc.). I wouldn't try to untangle their exact path of relations.
The point is they must be fairly recent, and in no way would be
expected to regularly form a noun asthma instead of *asma.
Between C_C s causes C>CH then s>0, but in a cluster like ntsm met.
or V-insertion to change the cluster at some stage would seem very likely.