Word for Wednesday: Hiccup

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Our Word for Wednesday theme for May is onomatopoeia. 

An onomatopoeic word imitates the sound of the action or thing it describes.

Onomatopoeic words are often used to describe animal sounds (chirp, hiss, meow, oink, squeak, etc), collisions (crash, bang, wallop, etc.); voice-related sounds (grunt, giggle, guffaw, rasp, wheeze, etc.); and water-related sounds (drip, gush, trickle, pitter-patter, etc.).

So far we’ve looked at the words bumblebee and flip-flop. This week's word is hiccup. 

The word hiccup imitates the chirping sound made by a spasm of the diaphragm and the sudden closure of the glottis. Hiccups are sometimes a symptom of indigestion. 

Hiccup dates to the 1570s, and before that the words ‘hicket’ and ‘hyckock’ were used to describe the same phenomenon. The spelling ‘hiccough’ dates to the late-sixteenth century, likely because of the similarity in sound between a hiccup and a cough. 

In Old English, hiccups were known as ‘aelfsogoða’ due to people believing they were caused by elves.

Do you know any tricks for stopping hiccups? 
 


19 May 2021
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