In my book I include an entry on the word hiccup with its background once being the word hicket and with an earlier unrelated word yex. I also mention that no one knows why we get hiccups and that they seem to serve no bodily function.

We now learn from Neil Shuben’s book Your Inner Fish that hiccups are a vestige of our evolution.

Our hiccups are controlled by something called a central pattern generator in our brain stem. When this fires we have a sharp intake of breath that closes our glottis with a snap (that’s the little door that keeps your drinks from going down the wrong way).

Dr. Shuben finds that our brain stem is genetically pre-programmed to contain this central pattern generator, as are the brain stems of other mammals and even amphibians. In particular amphibians that have both gills and lungs find the stereotyped pattern of muscle activity that forms a hiccup a distinct advantage. For them a hiccup is what keeps the water they need for their gills out of where they don’t need it (their lungs) during water to air transitions.

So now we do know why we hiccup.

You can find other errata (booboos & oversights I’ve made) by clicking here.