whelk
English edit
Alternative forms edit
Pronunciation edit
- IPA(key): /wɛlk/
Audio (Southern England) (file)
- (without the wine–whine merger) IPA(key): /hwɛlk/
- Rhymes: -ɛlk
Etymology 1 edit
From Middle English whelke, a variant of welk, from Old English weoloc, wiloc, wioloc, weluc, from Proto-West Germanic *weluk (compare Middle Dutch willoc, Dutch wulk), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *welH- (“to turn, revolve”) (whence vulva and volute). Unetymological spelling with wh- from the 15th century.[1]
Noun edit
whelk (plural whelks)
- Certain edible sea snails, especially, any one of numerous species of large marine gastropods belonging to Buccinidae, much used as food in Europe.
Synonyms edit
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
edible sea snail of the family Buccinidae
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Etymology 2 edit
From Middle English whelke, from Old English hwelca (“pustule, swelling”).
Noun edit
whelk (plural whelks)
- (archaic) Pimple.
- 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene v]:
- his face is all bubukles , and whelks , and knobs
- A stripe or mark; a ridge; a wale.
Derived terms edit
References edit
- ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “whelk”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
Further reading edit
- whelk on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- Buccinidae on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
- Category:Buccinidae on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons