ough

[A. Maberry]

The new OED has the following under "hiccup":
"[Hickop, hiccup, appears, from its date to be a variation of the earlier
hickock, HIKET q.v. Hiccough was a later spelling, app. through the
erroneous impression that the second syllable was *cough*, which has not
affected the received pronunciation, and ought to be abandoned as a mere
error.]"

Allen
maberry at u.washington.edu

On Mon, 6 Dec 1999, Prof. Roly Sussex wrote:

> I have just stumbled on
> http://members.aol.com/gulfhigh2/words3.html
> which adds a twist to the ough saga.
> Roly Sussex
>