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?
1566. T. Stapleton, Ret. Untr. Jewel, III. 100. Not broken it of in the middle, as if you had had the Choynecough.
1616. Beaum. & Fl., Bonduca, I. ii. It shall ne’er be said … Thou diedst o’ th’ chin-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.
