The Greek verb apopnigo means to choke, to drown, or to suffocate. It combines apo- (intensifier) and pnigo (to choke/strangle). In the New Testament it appears in Jesus' Parable of the Sower and in the account of the Gadarene demoniacs' pigs rushing into the lake.
Apopnigo is Jesus' word for what thorns do to the good seed in the Parable of the Sower (Luke 8:14): 'they are choked [apopnigontai] by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature.' This is one of Jesus' most direct warnings about the spiritual danger of prosperity and worldliness — not that wealth is evil, but that the 'thorns' of preoccupation with material things can choke spiritual fruitfulness. The same Greek root appears when the Gadarene pig herd was drowned (apepnige) in the lake. The word evokes both physical and spiritual suffocation.