Hickough

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. A sudden involuntary contraction of the diaphragm that produces a sharp sound ; a brief, minor problem that interrupts progress ; to produce that sharp, spasmodic sound oneself
2. An abrupt, involuntary jerk of the breathing muscle that makes a sharp noise ; a small, passing obstacle that briefly disrupts something ; to be affected by that sudden breathing spasm
3. A sharp, involuntary spasm of the chest muscle used in breathing ; a slight and short-lived interruption or setback ; to break into that jerky, gasping sound

Etymology: The word "hickough" is a 16th-century variant spelling of "hiccup," and its story is mostly one of imitation rather than borrowing. Its earliest English forms appear in the 1500s, when writers tried to capture the sound of the spasm in print, and the spelling shifted over the following centuries as people argued over how the noise should look on the page. The "-ough" ending was an attempt to match the rough, catching quality of the sound, which makes it an onomatopoeic formation rather than a word carried in from another language. Its history has a notable overlap with "hiccup" itself, which shows up in English in the 1600s and eventually displaced "hickough" in standard use. Earlier English also had the form "hiccough," and dictionaries of the 18th and 19th centuries recorded all three spellings side by side, with "hiccup" winning out in the modern era. Today "hickough" survives mainly as an archaic or dialectal spelling and is rarely seen outside older texts.