© 2003 BMJ Publishing Group
HISTORICAL NOTE
A note on hiccups
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Keywords: hiccups
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
The word hiccup (hiccough or singultus) appears, from its date, to be a variation of the earlier hickock, or hicket. Hiccough, a later spelling, appearing under the erroneous impression that the second syllable was cough; it ought to be abandoned as a mere error (OED).
The English hicket corresponds in formation to the French, and is the earliest form that evolved in series through, hickot, hickock, hickop, to hiccup. For example, T Phaer in Regim Lyfe (1553) remarked,
"It is good to cast colde water in the face of him that hath the hicket."
Many other 16th century writers suggested imaginative domestic remedies. Burton’s famous Anatomy of melancholy (1651) notes the effect of shock as a cure:
"By some false accusation, as they do to such as have the hick/hop, to make them forget it."
And in the 1727 Bradley’s family dictionary you find:
"You must in the very instant. . . [Full text of this article]
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