Forces air out of the lungs suddenly and noisily, usually involuntarily when irritated, or the sound this makes.
From Middle English 'coghen,' likely from Old Norse 'kokkr.' The word is imitative and onomatopoetic, mimicking the actual sound of coughing.
The word 'cough' is imitative—it sounds like the action—which is why most languages have similar-sounding words for it: German 'Husten,' Dutch 'hoest,' showing people across Europe heard the same sound and named it phonetically.
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