せく【咳く】 : seku | define meaning

Historical attestations:

• An English and Japanese and Japanese and English Vocabulary (1830), by Walter Henry Medhurst, records only the nominal form "セキ Seki... A cough, cold, hoarseness"
• A Japanese and English Dictionary: With an English and Japanese Index (1867), by James Curtis Hepburn, records "Seki, -ku, -ita, セク, 咳, t.v. To cough." and includes examples such as "Seite neraremasen, I could not sleep for coughing. Seki wo [seku], to cough. Tan wo seki-dasu, to cough up phlegm".
• A Japanese-English and English-Japanese Dictionary (1872), by James Curtis Hepburn, records only the nominal form "Seki, セキ, 咳, n. A cough".
• 日本大辞書 Nihon dai jisho (1894), by Binyō Yamada, records "セク｛（咳）く｝(...) 咳ヲスル".
• An Unabridged Japanese-English Dictionary (1896), by Frank Brinkley et al., records "Seku, セク, 咳, v.i. To cough" as well as the phrase "Seki wo seku. 咳ヲ咳ク To cough."

Discussion:

• Unclear relation between せく【急く】 seku "to breathe with difficulty" (esp. in いきせく【息急く】 ikiseku "to pant, to gasp (for air)") , せく【咳く】 seku "to cough", せく【塞く・堰く】 seku "to block; dam" and historical senses of せく seku including "to block (a road)", "to shut (a door)", "to interfere (in relations)", "to feel pain (in one's chest or stomach)", "to be squeezed [jostled] by a crowd, to be crowded". Several sources (including the 日本国語大辞典) group these senses together under the same origin but exclude the sense of "to hurry".
  • The word  せき【関】 seki "gate, barrier" (historically for collecting a toll) is likely related to the senses of "block (a road)" or "shut (a door)".