pneumo-comb. form

Etymology: Apparently partly < Hellenistic and Byzantine Greek πνευμο-, rare combining form of both ancient Greek πνεῦμα and πνεύμων ; partly from ancient Greek πνεῦμα wind, spirit, etc. (see pneuma n.) + -o- connective, and partly from ancient Greek πνευμον-, πνεύμων lung (see pneumono- comb. form) + -o- connective. Compare post-classical Latin pneumo- (formations in which are found from at least the first half of the 18th cent.), French pneumo- (formations in which are found from at least the first half of the 19th cent.), German pneumo- (formations in which are found from at least the second half of the 19th cent.). Compare pneumato- comb. form, pneumono- comb. form.With sense 1, compare Hellenistic Greek πνευμόμϕαλον umbilical hernia, beside πνευματόμϕαλος sufferer from umbilical hernia (both in Galen); see also parallel, often earlier, English forms in pneumato- comb. form (compare haemo- comb. form and haemato- comb. form). With sense 2, compare Byzantine Greek πνευμόρρωξ rupture of the lung; see also parallel, often earlier English forms in pneumono- comb. form. The earliest attested English formation is pneumology n. (1613), modelled on the (morphologically distinct) French pneumalogie, in which the sense is ‘spirit’. A number of loans and adaptations are found in subsequent centuries, and further formations within English are found from the first half of the 19th cent.