2036: hiccup versus hiccough Jul 12, 2020

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As mentioned before, there are lots of sounds, 7 specifically, that -ough- represent in English. However, in the least used as in 'hiccough' also spelt 'hiccup', there are two forms. The term itself is alliterative, but unlike other onomatopoeias, the form 'hiccough' was based off of the other word 'cough' for semantic continuity. Indeed, while this now might seem old fashioned, it was not always the most popular as seen in the graph below. Since then, the popularity of 'hiccup' has superseded that of 'hiccough'.

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