-pnea

English

Representing -πνοια (-pnoia), the common terminal element of the Ancient Greek ἄπνοια (ápnoia, “apnea”), δύσπνοια (dúspnoia, “dyspnea”), εὔπνοια (eúpnoia, “eupnea”), ὀρθόπνοια (orthópnoia, “orthopnea”), etc, from πνέω (pnéō, “I blow”) and πνοή (pnoḗ, “breath, breathing”).

When the stress falls on the suffix, (Received Pronunciation) enPR: -pnēʹə, that is, IPA^(key): /-ˈpniːə/; when the stress falls on the preceding combining form, the /i/ is unstressed (as the y in happy) and the p is usually expressed but sometimes silent; see the full workup of the variants at Wikipedia > Shortness of breath > Etymology and pronunciation.

-pnea