Sudden releases of gas from the stomach through the mouth; or to emit something suddenly and forcefully like smoke or flames.
From Old English 'belchan' or Germanic sources, possibly related to 'belly.' The word represents the physical action of expelling gas, with Medieval spellings showing it was onomatopoeia-adjacent.
Belching is one of the only bodily functions humans try to suppress across cultures—even though it's completely natural, societies invented 'excuse me' to acknowledge that we're still animals with animal bodies.
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