Obs. or dial. Also 6 chyne cough, chyn-, chincoughe, (chyckock), choinecouch, 7 choynecough. [For chinkcough, in northern dialect KINKCOUGH, f. CHINK v.1, KINK + COUGH. An earlier form was KINKHOST (f. HOST cough), corresp. to MLG. kinkhôste, LG. kinkhost, Du. kinkhoest, kik-, kiekhoest, Ger. keich-, keuchhusten, Da. kighoste, Sw. kikhosta, hooping-cough, all containing the stem (Saxon) kink-, OTeut. kik- to chink, kink, gasp. By popular etymology the word seems to have been connected with chin and chine, and in north dial. with king.]
An epidemic distemper, especially of children, characterized by a violent and convulsive cough: now more commonly called hooping-cough.
1519. Horman, Vulg., 35 b. I am foule rayed with a chyne [? chync] cowgh.
[1538. Bale, Thre Lawes, 525. Thre syppes are for the hyckock And vi more for the chyckock.]
1547. Salesbury, Welsh Dict., Pas pesswch, chyncoughe.
1565. Jewel, Repl. Harding (1611), 167. Was hee staied with the Choine-couch, and forced to breake off his tale in the midst.
1616. Beaum. & Fl., Bonduca, I. ii. It shall ne’er be said … Thou diedst o’ th’ chin-cough.
1652. Cotterell, Cassandra. Not broken it of in the middle, as if you had had the Choyne cough.
1709. Addison, Tatler, No. 121, ¶ 1. Poor Cupid … lies under something like a Chin-Cough.
1806. Med. Jrnl., XV. 508. A deep sonorous hoop, exactly resembling that of chin-cough.
1823. Moore, Fables, Holy Alliance, vi. 92. That they and theirs stood by the King, Throughout his measles and his chin-cough.
1859. Miss Mulock, Domest. Stories (1862), 28. He cured Mabel of the chincough.
