A sympathetic cougher is a person who feels compelled to cough upon hearing another person cough. The name implies sympathy -- as in, "I sure feel bad for that poor fellow doing all the coughing. Hey, I know, I'll cough too, and then they won't feel so all alone!!"

But it's not like that. More likely, the sympathetic cougher is the sort of person who upon hearing the coughing of another starts to think -- at some subconscious level -- about what the coughing person must be physically feeling to compel them to cough. That dryness of palate and scratchiness of throat, perhaps some sort of irritation. Therein may, in fact, lie the evolutionary basis for the phenomenon. If somebody around you is coughing, maybe there is some sort of contaminant in the air, and maybe you ought to be coughing too to fend it off.

With awareness and time and practice, it is possible to overcome a sympathetic coughing tendency, and become the sort of person who only coughs with indifference, apathy, and the coldest of hearts.



188-ish words, including this one, for Brevity Quest 2024

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.