rhonchus

English

WOTD – 16 November 2009

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin rhonchus (“snoring”), from Ancient Greek ῥόγχος (rhónkhos) (Caelius Aurelianus), of imitative origin.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɹɒŋ.kəs/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɹɑŋ.kəs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

rhonchus (plural rhonchi)

1. (medicine) A dry rattling sound heard during breathing, due to deposits in the bronchial tubes.
   • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 699:

     “You have poisoned yourself again!” Humfried emitted an alarming rhonchus.

Derived terms

• rhonchial
• sibilant rhonchus

Translations

sound

• Bulgarian: хрип m (hrip)
• Finnish: rohina, rahina, korina (fi)
• Ingrian: korina
• Polish: rzężenie (pl), rzężenia pl

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin rhonchus, from Ancient Greek ῥόγχος (rhónkhos).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈrɔŋkʏs/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

rhonchus f (plural rhonchi, no diminutive)

1. (medicine) rhonchus

Latin

Alternative forms

• roncus

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ῥόγχος (rhónkhos, “snoring, stertorous breathing”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈrʰɔŋ.kʰʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈrɔŋ.kus]

Noun

rhonchus m (genitive rhonchī); second declension

1. a snoring
   • 86 CE – 103 CE, Martialis, Epigrammata 3.82.29–31:

     Septunce multo deinde perditus stertit:
     Nos accubamus et, silentium rhonchis
     Praestare iussi, nutibus propinamus.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   1. (transferred senses) the croaking of a frog

      (Can we add an example for this sense?)

   2. (figurative) a sneering, sneer, jeer

      Synonym: illūsiō

      • 86 CE – 103 CE, Martialis, Epigrammata 1.3.5–6:

        Maiores nusquam rhonchi: iuvenesque senesque
        Et pueri nasum rhinocerotis habent.

        (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Declension

Second-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	rhonchus	rhonchī
genitive	rhonchī	rhonchōrum
dative	rhonchō	rhonchīs
accusative	rhonchum	rhonchōs
ablative	rhonchō	rhonchīs
vocative	rhonche	rhonchī

Derived terms

• rhonchisonus
• rhonchō

Descendants

• Italo-Romance:
  • Italian: ronco
• Ibero-Romance:
  • Portuguese: ronco
• Borrowings:
  • → Dutch: rhonchus
  • → English: rhonchus
  • → Italian: ronco (medicine)

See also

• stertō

References

• “rhonchus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press