Forms: 4–7 asma, (4 asmy), 7 astma, 6– asthma. [a. Gr. ἆσθμα, -ματ-, f. ἄζ-ειν to breathe hard, ἄ-ειν to blow. Smart and Walker give the pronunciation (æ·stmă).]
Difficulty of breathing; spec. a disease of respiration, characterized by intermittent paroxysms of difficult breathing, with a wheezing sound, a sense of constriction in the chest, cough and expectoration.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VII. xxix. (1495), 243. Dyffyculte and hardnes of brethynge hight Asma. Ibid., 244. Thre manere of Asmyes.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, 776. The shortnesse of breath called asthma.
1634. R. H., Salerne Regim., 205. The matter that causeth Asma.
1741–3. Wesley, Extr. Jrnl. (1749), 20. He seemed to be dying of an asthma.
1861. E. Mayhew, Dogs, 101. Asthma is spasm of the bronchial tubes.
