An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Husten

by Friedrich Kluge

Husten, masculine, ‘cough,’ from the equivalent Middle High German huoste, Old High German huosto, masculine, from an earlier *hwôsto with the loss of the w (Upper Alsatian and Swiss wuešte with the w retained and the h before it suppressed); compare Dutch hoest, Anglo-Saxon hwôsta, masculine, English (dialectic) whoost, Scandinavian hóste (for *hvóste), masculine, ‘cough.’ The verbal stem hwôs was retained in the Anglo-Saxon strong verb (preterite hweós), beside which a weak verb hwêsan, English wheeze, occurs. Teutonic root hwôs (Gothic *hwôs-ta), from pre-Teutonic kwôs, kâs, corresponds to the Sanscrit root kâs, ‘to cough,’ Lithuanian kósiu (kóseli), ‘to cough,’ Old Slovenian kašĭlĭ, masculine, ‘cough.’