An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/keuchen

by Friedrich Kluge

keuchen, verb, ‘to gasp,’ from Middle High German kûchen, ‘to breathe’; Middle High German kîchen, ‘to breathe with difficulty, gasp,’ has also been absorbed in the Modern High German verb. Corresponding to Dutch kugchen, ‘to cough,’ from Middle Dutch kuchen, Anglo-Saxon cohhettan, Middle English coughen, English to cough. — Middle High German kîchen is based on a Teutonic root kik, which appears in Low German, Dutch, and English, in a nasalised form; Low German (Holstein) kinghosten, Dutch kinkhoest, masculine, English chincough (for chinkcough), ‘whooping-cough’; allied to Swedish kikhosta, Danish kighoste, Anglo-Saxon čincung.