chokedamp

Etymology

From choke + damp.

chokedamp means A damp consisting chiefly of carbon dioxide, so called for its ability to asphyxiate. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 88 out of 100.

Why this word is great

CHOKEDAMP — [Noun] A suffocating atmosphere in a mine, consisting chiefly of carbon dioxide and lacking sufficient oxygen. From the English verb 'choke' (to stop the breath) + 'damp' (a noxious gas or vapor in a mine). Unlike firedamp (the explosive specter of methane) or blackdamp (the inert aftermath of combustion), chokedamp is the silent, anticipatory thief of breath. It is the cold, weighty stillness in a worked-out gallery, the extinguished flame on a miner’s candle, and the leaden weakness that claims the limbs before the mind grasps the danger—the earth’s deepest exhalations, waiting where the world is hollowed out.

noun

A damp consisting chiefly of carbon dioxide, so called for its ability to asphyxiate.“"Now, when you described the Wigan coal explosion last month, could you not have gone down and helped those people, in spite of the choke-damp?" "I did." "You never said so." "There was nothing worth bucking about." "I didn't know." She looked at me with rather more interest.”