the.com/asphyxia

means A dangerous lack of oxygen in the body, usually from blocked or stopped breathing, severe enough to cause unconsciousness or death.

from Borrowed into English via medical Latin from Greek 'asphyxia,' built from 'a-' (without) and 'sphyxis' (pulse, throb) — so literally 'without pulse' or 'pulseless.' Ancient physicians used it to describe a stopped or absent heartbeat; over time the word drifted from its literal pulse-meaning to describe suffocation more broadly, even though plenty of asphyxiation cases involve a pulse that's still very much there.