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> Hiccough has the sound of cup Ok, I had to google that, having never seen it spelled this way. Merriam-Webster agrees that the etymology of hiccup/hickup is
by scrollaway 8y ago
> Hiccough has the sound of cup
Ok, I had to google that, having never seen it spelled this way. Merriam-Webster agrees that the etymology of hiccup/hickup is imitative of the sound. Wiktionary says "hiccough" is a later spelling, folk-etymology.
Fun, but this one's not to blame on the English language :)
- posterboy 8y agoI can confer that German has Schluckauf (swallow-up). But if your hiccup sound like hiccup, not just hick, then you have a real problem. Schluckauf is only attested for the 18th ct. so it might well come from English. Anything labeled onomatopoetic is doubtful. It's almost always a cop out.