a bout of hiccupping, by 1723; see hiccup (n.). This often also was called hiccup or the hiccup. An earlier word for it (noun and verb) was yex, imitative, from Old English gesca, geosca.
Entries linking to hiccups
hiccup n.
1570s, hickop, earlier hicket, hyckock, "a word meant to imitate the sound produced by the convulsion of the diaphragm" [Abram Smythe Palmer, "Folk-Etymology," London, 1882]. Compare French hoquet, Danish hikke, Persian hikuk, Hindi hichki, etc. Modern spelling first recorded 1788; An Old English word for it was ælfsogoða, so called because hiccups were thought to be caused by elves.