Unable to breathe or feeling like you can't get enough air; also used to describe a feeling of being trapped or overwhelmed.
From Latin 'suffocare,' where 'sub-' means 'under' and 'fauces' means 'throat.' Literally, it means to choke from under the throat. The word evolved to describe both physical breathlessness and the psychological feeling of being trapped.
Humans use 'suffocating' for emotional situations even though we're not actually choking—like 'I feel suffocated by all these rules.' Our brains link physical and emotional experiences so tightly that we borrowed the worst physical sensation to describe psychological distress, which is why it's such a powerful word.
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