Other forms: hyperventilating
To hyperventilate is to breathe too fast and too shallow, usually in panic. More air in and out, and paradoxically feeling worse.
The reason is counter-intuitive, since the problem is losing too much carbon dioxide rather than lacking oxygen, which causes the tingling and dizziness. Slowing the breath out is the treatment, and the old advice about a paper bag is now discouraged. There is a figurative use in media criticism, since commentators are said to hyperventilate about a story they are overexciting.
1verbhyperventilateTo breathe abnormally fast, usually from anxiety.
“She began to hyperventilate on the platform.”
Proto-Indo-European
*h₂weh₁-
Latin
ventilātus
English
ventilate
English, today
hyperventilate
From hyper- + ventilate. ventilate comes from Middle English -, borrowed from Latin ventilātus, past participle of ventilō.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA