hoopoe (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict[hoopoe 词源字典]
1660s, from Latin upupa, imitative of its cry (compare Greek epops "hoopoe").
If anybody smears himself with the blood of this bird on his way to bed, he will have nightmares about suffocating devils. [Cambridge bestiary, 12c.]
[hoopoe etymology, hoopoe origin, 英语词源]
nightmare (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
late 13c., "an evil female spirit afflicting sleepers with a feeling of suffocation," compounded from night + mare (3) "goblin that causes nightmares, incubus." Meaning shifted mid-16c. from the incubus to the suffocating sensation it causes. Sense of "any bad dream" first recorded 1829; that of "very distressing experience" is from 1831. Cognate with Middle Dutch nachtmare, German Nachtmahr.
smother (v.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
c. 1200, "to suffocate with smoke," from smother (n.), earlier smorthre "dense, suffocating smoke" (late 12c.), from stem of Old English smorian "to suffocate, choke, strangle, stifle," cognate with Middle Dutch smoren, German schmoren; possibly connected to smolder. Meaning "to kill by suffocation in any manner" is from 1540s; sense of "to extinguish a fire" is from 1590s. Sense of "stifle, repress" is first recorded 1570s; meaning "to cover thickly (with some substance)" is from 1590s. Related: Smothered; smothering.
strangulation (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
1540s, from Latin strangulationem (nominative strangulatio) "a choking, a suffocating," noun of action from past participle stem of strangulare (see strangle). The verb strangulate (1660s) probably is a back-formation from this. Related: Strangulated.
suffocate (v.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
early 15c. (transitive), "deprive of air, choke, kill by preventing access of air to the lungs," also figurative, "stifle, smother, extinguish," from Latin suffocatus, past participle of suffocare "to choke" (see suffocation). Intransitive use, "become choked, stifled, or smothered," is from 1702. Related: Suffocated; suffocating.