What Does the Medical Term Singultus Mean?

On This Won't Hurt a Bit's Farts and Hiccups episode, singultus is the medical term for ordinary hiccups. Dr. Mel Herbert and Dr. Jess Mason say the word comes from Latin and means a speech broken by sobs. They describe the reflex as a sudden breath inward, then the glottis closing, which makes the sound, while the diaphragm is the muscle that contracts. The diaphragm has a left side and a right side, and they say the spasm is on the left about 80 percent of the time. The word comes up because some patients come to the emergency room when hiccups will not stop.