Unnumbered source etymology
Original entry ↗A feeling of apprehension, doubt, fear etc. · A sudden sickly feeling; queasiness. · A prick of the conscience; a moral scruple, a pang of guilt. · Mortality; plague; pestilence.
To have a sickly feeling.
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *gʷelH- Proto-Indo-European *gʷolH-mos Proto-Germanic *kwalmaz Proto-West Germanic *kwalm Old English cwealm Middle English qualm English qualm Perhaps from Middle English qualm, cwalm (“death, sickness, plague”), which is from Old English cwealm (West Saxon: "death, disaster, plague"), ūtcualm (Anglian: "utter destruction"), from Proto-West Germanic *kwalm (“killing, death, destruction”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷelH- (“to stick, pierce; pain, injury, death”), whence also quell. Although the sense development is possible, this has the problem that there are no attestations in intermediate senses before the appearance of "pang of apprehension, etc." in the 16th century. The alternative etymology is from Dutch kwalm or German Qualm (“steam, vapor, mist”) earlier “daze, stupefaction”, which is from the root of German quellen (“to stream, well up”). The sense “feeling of faintness” is from 1530; “uneasiness, doubt” from 1553; “scruple of conscience” from 1649.
Relationships mentioned by the source
These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.
This page abbreviates 1 auxiliary source items. The etymology narrative is not shortened. Omission counts are available in the audit fields below; consult the original for complete auxiliary material.
Inspect preserved source fields
Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.
{
"templates": [
{
"name": "ety",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": ":inh",
"3": "enm:qualm",
"tree": "1"
},
"expansion": "Etymology tree\nProto-Indo-European *gʷelH-\nProto-Indo-European *gʷolH-mos\nProto-Germanic *kwalmaz\nProto-West Germanic *kwalm\nOld English cwealm\nMiddle English qualm\nEnglish qualm\n[Appendix:Glossary#inherited|Inherited]] from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"lang\" : \"gem-pro\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"Proto-West Germanic\", \"term\" : \"*kwalm\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"gmw-pro\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"Old English\", \"term\" : \"cwealm\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"ang\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"Middle English\", \"term\" : \"qualm\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"enm\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"English\", \"term\" : \"qualm\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"en\" }\" data-lang=\"en\" data-title=\"qualm\">"
},
{
"name": "inh",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "enm",
"3": "qualm"
},
"expansion": "Middle English qualm"
},
{
"name": "inh",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ang",
"3": "cwealm"
},
"expansion": "Old English cwealm"
},
{
"name": "gloss",
"args": {
"1": "West Saxon: \"death, disaster, plague\""
},
"expansion": "(West Saxon: \"death, disaster, plague\")"
},
{
"name": "gloss",
"args": {
"1": "Anglian: \"utter destruction\""
},
"expansion": "(Anglian: \"utter destruction\")"
},
{
"name": "inh",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "gmw-pro",
"3": "*kwalm",
"4": "",
"5": "killing, death, destruction"
},
"expansion": "Proto-West Germanic *kwalm (“killing, death, destruction”)"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ine-pro",
"3": "*gʷelH-",
"4": "",
"5": "to stick, pierce; pain, injury, death"
},
"expansion": "Proto-Indo-European *gʷelH- (“to stick, pierce; pain, injury, death”)"
},
{
"name": "bor",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "nl",
"3": "kwalm"
},
"expansion": "Dutch kwalm"
},
{
"name": "bor",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "de",
"3": "Qualm",
"t": "steam, vapor, mist"
},
"expansion": "German Qualm (“steam, vapor, mist”)"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "de",
"3": "quellen",
"t": "to stream, well up"
},
"expansion": "German quellen (“to stream, well up”)"
},
{
"name": "ety",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": ":inh",
"3": "enm:qualm",
"tree": "1"
},
"expansion": "Etymology tree\nProto-Indo-European *gʷelH-\nProto-Indo-European *gʷolH-mos\nProto-Germanic *kwalmaz\nProto-West Germanic *kwalm\nOld English cwealm\nMiddle English qualm\nEnglish qualm"
}
],
"links": [
[
"*gʷelH-",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/gʷelH-#Proto-Indo-European:_throw"
],
[
"*kwalm",
"Reconstruction:Proto-West Germanic/kwalm"
],
[
"cwealm",
"cwealm#Old_English"
],
[
"qualm",
"qualm#Middle_English"
],
[
"qualm",
"qualm#Middle_English"
],
[
"cwalm",
"cwalm#Middle_English"
],
[
"cwealm",
"cwealm#Old_English"
],
[
"ūtcualm",
"utcualm#Old_English"
],
[
"*kwalm",
"Reconstruction:Proto-West Germanic/kwalm"
],
[
"*gʷelH-",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/gʷelH-"
],
[
"quell",
"quell#English"
],
[
"kwalm",
"kwalm#Dutch"
],
[
"Qualm",
"Qualm#German"
],
[
"quellen",
"quellen#German"
]
],
"references": [],
"descendants": [],
"lexical": [
{
"pos": "noun",
"glosses": [
"A feeling of apprehension, doubt, fear etc.",
"A sudden sickly feeling; queasiness.",
"A prick of the conscience; a moral scruple, a pang of guilt.",
"Mortality; plague; pestilence."
],
"tags": [
"UK",
"archaic",
"dialectal"
],
"recordId": "3f9cc89750032ac3d1ee1d4a8bcf71526cba5dd77fb1cf96cc431b560cf5ff24",
"rawRecordSha256": "6955dfcd897f8b450c58e3c4fb3915560c94d103ca4217febb25e4eca1c59b82",
"sourceRecordOrdinal": 17121
},
{
"pos": "verb",
"glosses": [
"To have a sickly feeling."
],
"tags": [
"intransitive"
],
"recordId": "e752459eccdeb816fc3f04742b3b3df1ca5ca6a937d6e5cd663cfd3f3cd7486d",
"rawRecordSha256": "73afadd0bbf526e16c47c171779edbaf4249a969a7364cb4d1bcf856f6768eef",
"sourceRecordOrdinal": 17122
}
],
"omittedAuxiliaryFields": {
"templates": 0,
"links": 0,
"references": 0,
"descendants": 0,
"lexicalRecords": 0,
"lexicalSenses": 1,
"glosses": 0
}
}