To die or cause someone to die by preventing them from breathing, or to feel like you can't breathe due to lack of air.
From Latin 'suffocatus,' past participle of 'suffocare,' meaning 'to choke.' The root combines 'sub-' (under/from below) and 'faux' (throat), literally meaning to push from the throat upward.
The word 'suffocate' originally described a very specific medical condition about gases trapped in the body—it wasn't until the 1600s that people started using it to mean simply 'can't breathe,' showing how medical terms become everyday vocabulary.
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