amechtig

From Middle Dutch amechtich, amachtich, perhaps from *amacht (“powerlessness”) +‎ -ich; compare Old High German āmahtīg (German ohnmächtig, with altered prefix). The presence of umlauted -e- in this word is due to Low German influence; in Dutch the -cht would otherwise have prevented umlaut (as in machtig).

The sense "short of breath" arose due to conflation of the privative West-Germanic prefix a- (seemingly unrelated to the Indo-European alpha privative) with the contracted form aâm of the word adem (“breath”).

• IPA^(key): /aːˈmɛx.təx/

• Audio:

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• Hyphenation: amech‧tig

amechtig (comparative amechtiger, superlative amechtigst)

1. (archaic) powerless
2. short of breath, panting, short-winded
3. (figurative) forced, frantic
   • 2024 October 11, Raoul du Pré, “Wilders' X-account is een sinkhole waarin de hele Nederlandse politiek dreigt te verdwijnen”, in Volkskrant‎^[1], archived from the original on 11 October 2024:

     Kamerleden van VVD, NSC en BBB doen intussen amechtige pogingen om de rust terug te brengen met oproepen aan de oppositie: die moet het allemaal niet zo belangrijk maken.

     In the meantime, VVD, NSC, and BBB members of parliament are making frantic efforts to restore peace by appealing to the opposition: they shouldn't make it bigger than it is.

amechtig

1. in a forced, frantic way

• van der Sijs, Nicoline, editor (2010), “amechtig”, in Etymologiebank, Meertens Institute