The Etymology of “Chincough”

Abstract

THERE can, I think, be no doubt that “chincough” is a good English word, meaning whooping-cough and nothing else. It has nothing to do with chien (a dog), as Mr. Hart supposes (NATURE, October 21), or with chin, although to anyone who has noticed the depression and thrusting forward of the lower jaw during a paroxysm this derivation might seem probable. The word is, according to Skeat, properly chink-cough, and in Scotland and some parts of England a paroxysm is called a kink, which, again according to Skeat, means a catch in the breath, from kik, or kuk, to gasp, an imitative word, which is also the base of cough. The term kinkhost, still in use in Scotland, resembles the German equivalent, keuchhusten, which is also imitative. The French coqueluche is more puzzling, but probably has reference to the crowing inspiration which follows the expiratory spasm.