/kwɑːm/, /kwɔːm/, /kwɑ(l)m/
OriginPerhaps from Middle English qualm, cwalm (“death, sickness, plague”), which is from Old English cwealm (West Saxon: "death, disaster, plague"), ūtcwalm (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.
- A feeling of apprehension, doubt, fear etc.
“[W]ho vvould not rather Sleep Quietly upon a Hammock, vvithout either Cares in his Head, or Crudities in his Stomach, then lye Carking upon a Bed of State, vvith the Qualms and Tvvinges that accompany”
“"Do you have any particular qualms about leaving Pencey?" / "Oh, I have a few qualms, all right. Sure … but not too many. Not yet, anyway.[…]"”
“Opponents of those privatization plans hoped to use Mr. [Neil] Armstrong's qualms as ammunition to block the White House initiatives, and they asked for more public statements.”
- A sudden sickly feeling; queasiness.
- A prick of the conscience; a moral scruple, a pang of guilt.
“This lawyer has no qualms about saving people who are on the wrong side of the law.”
- UK, archaic, dialectalMortality; plague; pestilence.
- UK, archaic, dialectalA calamity or disaster.
- intransitiveTo have a sickly feeling.
Formsqualms(plural) · calm(alternative) · qualms(present, singular, third-person) · qualming(participle, present) · qualmed(participle, past) · qualmed(past)