choke

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English choken, a variant of earlier cheken,^[2][3][4] a shortened form of acheken, also achoken,^[2][5][6][4] inherited from Old English ācēocian (“to choke, suffocate”),^[2][5][6][7] recorded once, in the homilies of Ælfric.^[8][9][2] Barnhart reconstructs it as Proto-Germanic *us-keukōjanan.^[2] The Old English verb is usually explained as the intensive prefix ā- and a verb formed from cēoce (“jaw, cheek”), the source of cheek;^{[10][6][7][9][5]} the OED, which calls the early history obscure, thinks the link with cheek possible, since both could continue a stem Proto-Germanic *keuk-, and notes that no cognate verb is found elsewhere in Germanic.^[8] It compares verbs made from words for the throat, such as throttle and jugulare.^[8][11] The vowel of choken, beside the regular cheken, arose from a shift of stress in the Old English diphthong.^[8][2] Dictionary.com and Partridge compare Old Norse kok (“gullet”).^[12][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

To stop someone's breath by squeezing the throat; to strangle: 1303, in Robert Mannyng's Handlyng Synne.^[8][2][5]

Semantic evolution

From about 1380 the verb was used of something stuck in the throat, and of a disease or feeling that stops the breath;^[8] the intransitive sense, to be unable to breathe, follows about 1400.^[8][5] Figurative uses appear about the same time, often of weeds stifling useful plants,^[5] a Biblical image from the parable of the sower, recorded in Tyndale's translation of 1526.^[8] The verb was then applied to smothering a fire (1528), to suppressing a feeling (Shakespeare) and to blocking a passage or channel (early 17th century).^[8][7] The noun first meant quinsy, a swelling of the throat (1562),^[8][5][2] and the action and noise of choking only from 1839.^[8][5] Ayto points out that choke developed like throttle: from a constriction of the air passage to a narrowing in a tube (1786, in fireworks and gun barrels) and then, in the 20th century, to a valve that controls the air reaching an engine.^[9][8] The choke of an artichoke (1736) is probably a confusion of that word's ending with choke,^[14][7] and Ayto sees no real connection.^[9] In American English choked up, too moved to speak, is recorded by 1896, the baseball sense of gripping the bat higher by 1907, and choke, to fail at a decisive moment, by 1976.^[5] In slang a choke was a clerical collar (1848) and prison bread (1884).^[15][8]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – Old English ācēocian, in the homilies of Ælfric.^[2][8]
• c. 1200 – acheken.^[5][2]
• 1303 – to strangle or suffocate by squeezing the throat.^[8][2]
• c. 1380 – of something stuck in the throat.^[8]
• c. 1400 – intransitive, to be unable to breathe.^[8][5]
• 1526 – of weeds smothering plants.^[8]
• 1528 – to smother a fire.^[8]
• 1562 – noun, quinsy (obsolete).^[8][5][2]
• 1736 – the hairy centre of an artichoke.^[8][4]
• 1786 – a constriction, as in a firework tube or a gun barrel.^[8]
• 1839 – the action and noise of choking, in Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby.^[8][5]
• 1896 – choked up, unable to speak from emotion.^[5]
• 1909 – an electric choke coil.^[8]
• 1926 – a valve controlling the air to a carburettor.^[8][5]
• 1931 – a hold on the neck in wrestling.^[8]
• 1976 – to fail under pressure (American English).^[5]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To stop or hinder the breathing of a person or animal, by squeezing or blocking the windpipe: The smoke nearly choked the firefighters.
2. To have difficulty in breathing, swallowing or speaking: He choked on a fish bone.
3. To block or clog a passage, pipe or street.
4. To hold back the growth or action of something, as weeds do to plants.
5. To suppress a feeling; often choke back tears or anger.
6. To reduce the air supply to a carburettor so as to enrich the fuel mixture.
7. (slang) To die.
8. (informal) To fail at a decisive moment through nerves.

Noun

1. The act or sound of choking.
2. A valve in the air intake of a carburettor, used to start an engine.
3. (electricity) A coil of high inductance that smooths or changes the phase of an alternating current.
4. A narrowed part of a gun's bore.
5. The hairy, inedible centre of an artichoke head.
6. A hold applied to the neck in wrestling or martial arts.

Word family

• chokeable
• chokeberry
• chokebore
• chokecherry
• chokedamp
• choke-full
• chokehold
• chokepoint

Related words

• cheek
• choker
• throttle
• artichoke

Usage notes

A separate, mostly Scottish noun choke or chouk, the jaw or the fleshy part under it, usually in the plural, is probably a variant of cheek, perhaps influenced by Old Norse kjálki (“jawbone”).^[8][7][4] In Devon a choke was the twist at the end of a straw band tying a sheaf.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
14. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
16. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)