stridor

English

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin strīdor (“shrill or harsh sound”), from strīdō (“make a shrill or harsh sound”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈstɹɑjɾɹ̩/

Noun

stridor (countable and uncountable, plural stridors)

1. A harsh, shrill, unpleasant noise.

   1891 But when the tilted plank let slide its freight into the sea, a second strange human murmur was heard, blended now with another inarticulate sound proceeding from certain larger sea-fowl, whose attention having been attracted by the peculiar commotion in the water resulting from the heavy sloped dive of the shotted hammock into the sea, flew screaming to the spot. So near the hull did they come, that the stridor or bony creak of their gaunt double-jointed pinions was audible. Herman Melville, Billy Budd, Chapter 28.

2. (medicine) A high-pitched sound heard on inspiration resulting from turbulent air flow in the upper airway usually indicative of serious airway obstruction.
   • 1973, Oliver Sacks, Awakenings, New York: Vintage, 1999, p. 50,

     Her breath-holding increased in duration to almost a minute; her expirations became complicated by stridor, forced retching, and forced phonations ('Oouuggh!').

Derived terms

• • strident
  • stridulous

   

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “stridor”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

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Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈstriː.dor/, [ˈs̠t̪riːd̪ɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈstri.dor/, [ˈst̪riːd̪or]

Noun

strīdor m (genitive strīdōris); third declension

1. A harsh, shrill, hissing, grating, or creaking sound

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	strīdor	strīdōrēs
Genitive	strīdōris	strīdōrum
Dative	strīdōrī	strīdōribus
Accusative	strīdōrem	strīdōrēs
Ablative	strīdōre	strīdōribus
Vocative	strīdor	strīdōrēs

References

• “stridor”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “stridor”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• stridor in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• stridor in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.