Etymologically
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choke

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /t͡ʃəʊk/[1]
  • US: /t͡ʃoʊk/[1]

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

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)