lungful
Meaning
The amount of air that can be held in the lungs in a single breath.
Structure
Usage
He took a deep lungful of the crisp mountain air.
She drew in a lungful of smoke before speaking.
A single lungful of the polluted air was enough to make him cough.
Etymology
The word 'lungful' is a transparent Modern English compound, formed by directly combining the noun 'lung' with the quantifying suffix '-ful'. The Old English root for 'lung', lungen, is thought to be related to the concept of lightness, as lungs are light, air-filled organs. The suffix '-ful' originates from the Old English adjective full, meaning "full," and was grammaticalized to create nouns indicating a container's capacity or a specific quantity. Thus, 'lungful' logically denotes the specific quantity—the volume of air—that fills one's lungs in a single inhalation.
Analysis
- lung: From Old English lungen, of Germanic origin, related to Dutch long and German Lunge. It refers to the respiratory organ. - ful: From Old English -ful, an adjective-forming suffix meaning "full of," which evolved into a noun-forming suffix denoting "the amount that fills."