Talk:wheeze

Theatrical origins?

John Camden Hotten's Slang Dictionary (1873) has this:

Wheeze, a joke, an anecdote, or dialogue, not strictly connected with a piece that is being played, but introduced by an actor, sometimes with the assistance and for the benefit of others. The dialogues which take place between the songs at nigger entertainments are also known as wheezes. The word actually means a new notion as applied to dialogue.

Equinox ◑ 20:11, 4 January 2021 (UTC)

RFV discussion: April 2021

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wheeze

Rfv-sense: "To convulse with laughter; to become breathless due to intense laughing"

DCDuring (talk) 01:25, 17 April 2021 (UTC)

cited Kiwima (talk) 01:59, 17 April 2021 (UTC)

• I strongly disagree that the evidence provided supports the definition unambiguously. These are citations of someone wheezing while or before laughing: easily seen as two separate phenomena in the cites. Try substituting the definition into the purported cites: doesn't work. I doubt that any cite with 'laugh|ing|s|ed' and 'wheez|e|ing|es|ed' in the same sentence will be good evidence. Perhaps in the same paragraph, but even then, there is likely to be ambiguity. DCDuring (talk) 02:06, 17 April 2021 (UTC)

The last two cites include the {very easily found) phrase "wheezed laughter", which clearly indicates that the laughter is part of the wheezing, not a separate action. If you want, I can add several more cites with this phrase, it is quite common. The first two cites say that someone wheezed, and then go on to describe the laughter that the wheeze comprised. Again, not a separate action. Kiwima (talk) 03:15, 17 April 2021 (UTC)

So then similar cites for "forced laughter" would also indicate that forcing was integral to laughing? And thus that force meant "to laugh in a forced way"? DCDuring (talk) 17:04, 19 April 2021 (UTC)

Good point. I do think, however, that the 1988 and 1993 support this definition. Let me turn this around, @DCDuring:, what kind of quote WOULD you accept as evidence of this meaning? Kiwima (talk) 20:41, 19 April 2021 (UTC)

The 1932 cite "wheeze with laughter" has a similar problem. One can wheeze with other things: "he wheezed with corpulency", "He gasped and wheezed with impotent optimism", "Outside the dog wheezed with excitement". One can wheeze with relief or excitement or various medical symptoms, signs, or diagnoses. DCDuring (talk) 14:46, 20 April 2021 (UTC)

In the 1973 cite, "He began to wheeze again" implies that there was previous wheezing, but the snippet view doesn't let us see the context of the previous wheezing. The second instance of wheezing in the passage seems to be metonymy.

The numerous instances of "wheez|e|es|ing|ed a laugh" suggest that wheezing is often viewed as an activity that can result in a laugh or in laughter, ie, that they are separate. The instances in which they might be combined into a single activity or result seem ambiguous to me or to be instance of metonymy.

There may be instances in which the words laugh or laughter (or synonyms) do not occur and the word wheeze has the definition I challenge, but they will be hard to find and will probably be ambiguous. If this were a sense that appeared in some other dictionary, I'd take it more seriously, but I haven't found such a dictionary. OED? DCDuring (talk) 15:13, 20 April 2021 (UTC)

• I note that there is a transitive sense of wheeze that other OneLook dictionaries don't have, but seems clearly attestable. One can wheeze a word, a response, a wheeze, one's way, one's life away, a quoted expression, a that clause, etc. DCDuring (talk) 15:31, 20 April 2021 (UTC)

I'd say it's a pretty systematic property of English that any verb related to "mouth sounds" can be used for reported speech ("lorem ipsum" he {yawned, sighed, gasped, hissed, shrieked, etc.}), and that any verb used for reported speech can be used transitively with a noun representing a unit of speech (word, response, plea, insult, etc.). But still probably worth recording the sense. Colin M (talk) 18:45, 20 April 2021 (UTC)

• The (slang) label here is key. This use is very common on social media. e.g. look at some Reddit comments containing "wheezing":
  • lmao, you guys are so funny, i'm wHEEZING-
  • Haahahahahahahahahah funny funny how can people not love it its so funny im wheezing right now
  • I am wheezing now😂😂
  • I'm not normally one to LOL, but this had me wheezing.

I know a lot of people here have hang-ups about citing social media, but I think a cursory search of Reddit or Twitter is sufficient to show that this satisfies the "clearly widespread use" prong of WT:ATTEST. Colin M (talk) 18:50, 20 April 2021 (UTC)

I see your point. I was not familiar with such usage. DCDuring (talk) 00:45, 21 April 2021 (UTC)

The hang-up about social media is that it's usually not durably archived (since users can delete their posts). However, simply searching Desuarchive for "i'm wheezing" shows plenty of usable cites, like this one from 2013.__Gamren (talk) 02:17, 21 April 2021 (UTC)

These contemporary social media usages seem to support the definition. To me the older cites seem more like precursors than actual examples of the definition. DCDuring (talk) 15:26, 21 April 2021 (UTC)

RFV-passed Kiwima (talk) 20:10, 28 April 2021 (UTC)

RFD discussion: April 2021–February 2022

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wheeze

sense: "2. Of birds, to make a vocalization that resembles the sound of human wheezing."

Sense 1 is not limited to humans, so this sense must be included in sense 1. I haven't found another dictionary that makes this distinction. Would we need another definition for a bellows, an asthmatic dog, etc? There is also only one cite. DCDuring (talk) 01:30, 17 April 2021 (UTC)

I think it is reasonable to make a distinction between the primary meaning of wheezing as a symptom of partial obstruction of the respiratory airways, and that (by extension), if it can be attested, of making a sound similar to that of pathological wheezing. Is it common to refer to such sound production by birds as wheezing? It does not suggest making a visit to the vet with your Norwegian blue, unlike for your asthmatic dog.  --Lambiam 13:35, 19 April 2021 (UTC)

I agree that these senses are distinct. At the same time, I wonder if this definition is basically just figurative use. As such, that could still be worth including, I just don't know at what point. (The dividing line I would guess comes when the word starts to be used in a descriptive rather colorful way. The "black tuxedo and red shoes" and most prose is descriptive, "like a roadside undertaker" and most poetry is colorful. But less subjectively, the more common the figurative sense, the more likely this descriptive use has caught on, and the more likely someone will run across it as well.) DAVilla 22:33, 2 June 2021 (UTC)

I think it should be changed to "to make a sound like" sense 1. I can imagine any number of inanimate objects being described as "wheezing"- a Google Books search on "wheezed its way" turns up a decent number of hits referring to various decrepit vehicles. Though, come to think of it, that may merit a separate sense of something like "figuratively: progress with difficulty, as if out of breath". Then there's the Tom-Swifty-style usage accompanying reported speech. Chuck Entz (talk) 14:52, 27 April 2021 (UTC)

As the creator of this def., I admit to being overly specific and surely a more generalised def is required. I shall fix it. - Sonofcawdrey (talk) 03:44, 16 May 2021 (UTC)

Note the sense has since been expanded with (e.g.) an example of a wheezing accordion. Equinox ◑ 22:23, 16 December 2021 (UTC)

RFD-resolved by a rewrite. Vox Sciurorum (talk) 14:11, 1 February 2022 (UTC)