1520s, "pertaining to breath," from breath + -y (2). Of voices, "full of breath," from 1883. Related: Breathily; breathiness.
Entries linking to breathy
breath n.
Old English bræð "odor, scent, stink, exhalation, vapor" (the Old English word for "air exhaled from the lungs" was æðm), from Proto-Germanic *bræthaz "smell, exhalation" (source also of Old High German bradam, German Brodem "breath, steam"), perhaps [Watkins] from a PIE root *gwhre- "to breathe; smell." The original long vowel (preserved in breathe) has become short.
The meaning "ability to breathe," hence "life" is from c. 1300. The meaning "a single act of breathing" is from late 15c.; the sense of "the duration of a breath, a moment, a short time" is from early 13c. The meaning "a breeze, a movement of free air" is from late 14c.
-y 2
adjective suffix, "full of or characterized by," from Old English -ig, from Proto-Germanic *-iga- (source also of Dutch, Danish, German -ig, Gothic -egs), from PIE -(i)ko-, adjectival suffix, cognate with elements in Greek -ikos, Latin -icus (see -ic). Originally added to nouns in Old English; used from 13c. with verbs, and by 15c. even with other adjectives (for example crispy). Adjectives such as hugy, vasty are artificial words that exist for the sake of poetical metrics.