Meaning

noun a short labored intake of breath with the mouth open

verb breathe noisily, as when one is exhausted

originFrom Middle English gaspen, gayspen (“to gape, outbreathe”), related to and likely derived from Old Norse geispa (“to yawn”) or its descendant Danish gispe, which may be related to gapa (“to gape”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0