Coughed

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Forced air out of the lungs abruptly with a harsh sound as a reflex or voluntarily
2. Produced a sudden explosive breath from the chest often to clear the throat or respond to irritation
3. Emitted a sharp burst of air through the throat, usually accompanied by a characteristic sound

Etymology: The verb "coughed" is simply the past tense of "cough," and the story of the base word is one of sound rather than of scholarship. Its ancestor was probably "cohhian" in Old English, and the Proto-West Germanic root behind it, "kuh-," is generally thought to be onomatopoeic, imitating the harsh expulsion of breath itself. That is why so many neighbouring languages have words of nearly identical shape: Middle Dutch "cuchen," Middle High German "kûchen," and the modern German "keuchen," which means to pant or gasp for breath. The Middle English form "coughen" carried a broader sense than the modern word. It could also mean "to vomit," so the older verb covered the whole violent business of expelling something from the body, not just the air. The narrowing to the single act of clearing the throat happened gradually as the word moved through English.

Synonyms: cleared, expelled