Abstract
WHOOPING-COUGH is, or used to be, called in the south of Scotland, “chincough,” but the “ch” was hard, so that it sounded kincough, or kink-cough. In Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary the word “To kink” has the meanings (1) a violent fit of coughing attended with suspension of breathing, (2) a regular fit of the chincough. “To kink” is to labour for breath in a severe fit of coughing. The more purely Scottish word for whooping-cough is “kinkhost,” in the Belgic language kink-hoest.
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B., L. The Etymology of “Chincough”. Nature 96, 229 (1915). https://doi.org/10.1038/096229b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/096229b0
