Etymology

suffocate

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Today it means: To suffer, or cause someone to suffer, from severely reduced oxygen intake to the body. Full definition →

Middle English suffocat(e) ← Latin suffōcātus
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromsuffōcō
  2. Latin · derived fromsuffōcātus
  3. Middle English · inherited fromsuffocat(e)“deprived of air, suffocated”
  4. English todaysuffocate

The adjective is first attested in the 1420s, the verb in 1526; from Middle English suffocat(e) (“deprived of air, suffocated”), borrowed from Latin suffōcātus, the perfect passive participle of Latin suffōcō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from sub- (“under, up to”) + fōx (“throat”, oblique stem in fōc-). Participial usage up until Early Modern English.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.