Sick Day

The oldest is home sick today. He was coughing slightly yesterday morning, but insisted he was well enough to go to school, where his teacher was giving out guppies to those children with permission. So he went and got his guppy and seemed fine...

...until overnight when he began coughing more and more. The medicine I gave him didn't seem to help. And this morning his voice was raspy and his eyes had smudges underneath from interrupted sleep. So home he stayed.

As I was tucking him in for a much-needed nap a few minutes ago, he said, "Mommy? You know what? When you cough, it sounds like you say the word cough. Listen." And he coughed. And it did.

So I checked. And he's right: [Middle English coughen, ultimately of imitative origin.]
"cough." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. Answers.com 22 Feb. 2006. http://www.answers.com/topic/cough

When he wakes up, I'll tell him that's called

onomatopoeia
noun
The formation or use of words such as buzz or murmur that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to.
[Late Latin, from Greek onomatopoiiā, from onomatopoios, coiner of names : onoma, onomat-, name + poiein, to make.]
"onomatopoeia." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. Answers.com 22 Feb. 2006. http://www.answers.com/topic/onomatopoeia