The story
- Ancient Greek · derived fromἆσθμα“laborious breathing, asthma”
- Medieval Latin · derived fromasthma
- Middle English · inherited fromasma
- English todayasthma
From Middle English asma, asme, from Medieval Latin asthma, asma, from Ancient Greek ἆσθμα (âsthma, “laborious breathing, asthma”). The spelling was changed to add -th- in the 16th century to match the Greek etymological roots.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.