Ondine's curse
Ondine's curse proper noun: a medical condition marked by malfunction of the nerves that control involuntary body functions, causing breathing to require conscious effort and therefore meaning patients will die if they fall asleep.
Proper noun
Ondine's curse
- A medical condition marked by malfunction of the nerves that control involuntary body functions, causing breathing to require conscious effort and therefore meaning patients will die if they fall asleep.
- Ondine’s curse—more appropriately known as congenital central hypoventilation syndrome, or CCHS—is a rare, severe form of sleep apnea in which an individual completely stops breathing when falling asleep.2020 June 9, Brandon Peters, MD, “What Is Ondine's Curse?”, in Ondine's Curse Symptoms and Treatment, archived from the original on 25 Aug 2021
Forms of Ondine's curse
| alternative form | Undine's curse |
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Origin of Ondine's curse
According to French and German mythology, the nymph Ondine/Undine discovered that her husband had committed adultery. Because he had promised his every waking breath to her, she cursed him that so long as he was awake he could breathe, but if he ever fell asleep he would stop breathing and die.
Questions about Ondine's curse
- What does Ondine's curse mean?
- Ondine's curse means a medical condition marked by malfunction of the nerves that control involuntary body functions, causing breathing to require conscious effort and therefore meaning patients will die if they fall asleep.
- What part of speech is Ondine's curse?
- Ondine's curse is a proper noun.
Words near Ondine's curse in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: Ondine's curse (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “Ondine's curse.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ondine%27s_curse. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.