Greetings Gammarians! Today we are examining the hilarious, sometimes pleasurable and every-so-often deadly, bodily function: sneezing. Now, the word ‘sneeze’ can wait until another day. Today we are talking about the cause of sneezing - ‘sternutators’. This noun can refer to any substance that causes sneezing, coughing, and tears.

This word descends from the Latin sternūtātōrius, from sternuō (“sneeze”). The root ‘sternutation’, also Latin, is a descendant of the verb sternuere, meaning "to sneeze."

One of the earliest known English uses occurred in a 16th-century edition of a book on midwifery, in a passage about infants suffering from frequent "sternutation and sneesynge." The term has long been used in serious medical contexts, but also on occasion for humorous effect. In 1850, for example, author Grace Greenwood observed that U.S. senators from opposing political parties would often come together to share snuff: "And all three forget their sectional differences in a delightful concert of sternutation. No business is too grave, no speaker too eloquent, to be 'sneezed at.'"

In modernity, sternutators have taken on a more sinister aspect in regards to their use as a weapon. Particularly referring to chemical substances that cause sneezing and coughing and crying, for example; "police used a sternutatory to subdue the mob". A Sternutator now most commonly refers to an agent that causes sneezing, especially one used in chemical warfare that causes irritation to the nose and eyes, pain in the chest, and nausea.

But to end on a slightly brighter note, let us consider the effect of sneezing on the local wildlife with a quote from "Dick Cheveley" by W. H. G. Kingston, “At the first sternutation the rats jumped up and looked about them, evidently considerably alarmed.”

Isn’t language wonderful?

Written by Taylor Davidson, Read by Zane C Weber

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