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Etymology and origin of the English word quail

Pronunciation

  • /kweɪl/, /ˈkweɪ.əl/[1]

quail1 game bird

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1381 Diuersa Servicia
Borrowed from
Anglo-Norman quaile via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Medieval Latin quaccola

Etymology

The bird is inherited from Middle English quaile, also quaille,[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman quaile, also quaille, and Middle French caille;[4][2] in Old French the word is recorded from the 12th century,[4] and Anglo-Norman quaile from the early 12th century.[5] It comes from Medieval Latin quaccola, recorded in the 8th century,[4][6][3] probably of imitative origin, from the bird's call.[4][6][7][8][9] The American Heritage Dictionary reconstructs Vulgar Latin *quaccula behind it,[6] and Hoad and the Shorter Oxford give the Medieval Latin form as coacula.[9][10][7] The same source gave Italian quaglia, Old Occitan calha, Catalan guatlla and Old Spanish coalla.[4][11] The OED finds the connection with Middle Dutch quackel, modern Dutch kwakkel, uncertain;[4] Klein, Etymonline and the Shorter Oxford compare Old High German quahtala, German Wachtel and Old English wihtel, words also imitative of the cry,[3][11][10] and Weekley and Dictionary.com take the French word itself from Germanic.[12][13] Barnhart gives both explanations,[14] and Etymonline allows that the English word might even be native.[11] Johnson derived it from Italian.[15] The surname Simon Quayle (1327) may show the word earlier.[4][14][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The game bird: 1381, in the cookery collection Diuersa Servicia.[4] Barnhart's first record is Chaucer's Parlement of Foules, about 1380,[14] and Etymonline dates it to the late 14th century.[11]

Semantic evolution

In Anglo-Norman the quail was already a byword for a fearful, cowardly bird, and was eaten as food.[5] In English regional use the name passed to the corncrake, first in Henryson's Scots fables before 1500,[4] and the English Dialect Dictionary records this use in Leicestershire and Warwickshire.[16] From 1625 the name was given to partridge-like birds of the New World;[4][11] the Century Dictionary noted that in the United States the bobwhite was called quail where the ruffed grouse was called partridge, and partridge where the grouse was called pheasant.[11] From 1848 it was also used of the small three-toed birds now called button quails.[4] The bird was supposed to be amorous, and quail meant a prostitute or courtesan from the late 16th century;[17][4] the OED compares a French phrase of 1544 and an Anglo-Norman use for a courtesan from about 1184.[4] American students used it for a girl or young woman from 1859.[4][11]

Timeline

  • 1327 – the surname Simon Quayle.[4][14]
  • 1381 – the Old World game bird.[4] Barnhart's first record is Chaucer, about 1380.[14]
  • before 1500 – the corncrake, in Scots and later English regional use.[4]
  • 1577 – a prostitute, in Misogonus.[17] The OED's first record is Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida (1609).[4]
  • 1625 – a partridge-like bird of the New World.[4]
  • 1848 – a button quail of the genus Turnix.[4]
  • 1859 – United States student slang, a girl or young woman.[4][11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A small, plump, short-tailed game bird of the Old World, especially of the genus Coturnix, related to the partridge and pheasant.[18][2][4]
  2. Any of various similar American birds, such as the bobwhite.[18][2][4]
  3. (regional) The corncrake.[4][16]
  4. (United States slang) A girl or young woman.[4][11]
  5. (obsolete, 1609–1840) A courtesan or prostitute.[4][17]

Word family

  • quaillike
  • button quail
  • Japanese quail

quail2 lose heart

Confidence
Disputed
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1400 Wyclif, English Works
Borrowed from
Middle Dutch quelen via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Proto-Germanic *kwelaną

Etymology

The verb meaning to lose heart is inherited from Middle English quailen, also wailen and whaile,[19][14] and its origin is uncertain.[4][10][7][8] Most sources take it as probably borrowed from Middle Dutch quelen (“to suffer, be ill”), also queilen;[6][14][19][11][13] the OED, more cautiously, only compares queilen, a Flemish variant.[4] The Dutch verb goes back to Proto-Germanic *kwelaną,[20][14] the source also of Old English cwelan (“to die”), Old Saxon quelan (“to be tortured, to die”) and Old High German quelan (“to suffer”),[20][11] and is related to German quälen.[11] Barnhart traces it to Proto-Indo-European *gʷel- (“to prick, pierce”), comparing Lithuanian gélti (“to prick”),[14] and Etymonline gives the root the sense "to throw, reach", extended to "to pierce".[11] Klein, Weekley, Partridge and Merriam-Webster instead take it as a figurative use of the Middle English verb for curdling, from Old French coailler, modern cailler, from Latin coāgulō (“to curdle”), the source of coagulate;[3][12][21][2][18] Weekley notes that Italian cagliare had both senses, to curdle and to hold one's peace.[12] Etymonline and Ayto mention both views.[11][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

To decline from a flourishing state; to waste away or wither: about 1400, in Wyclif's English Works (manuscript about 1430).[4] Etymonline dates "to have a morbid craving" to about 1400 and "to grow feeble or sick" to the early 15th century,[11] and Barnhart finds weilynge, having a morbid craving, in Wyclif's writings about 1400, and wailen, to grow sick or feeble, before 1425 in a translation of Higden's Polychronicon.[14][19]

Semantic evolution

From wasting away, the verb was used from about 1450, in Capgrave, of an undertaking that failed or came to nothing,[4][11] and in the 16th century transitively of spoiling or putting an end to something, and of daunting a person.[4] The sense "to lose heart, shrink before danger, cower" appears in the 1540s and 1550s:[4][11][14] the OED dates it to 1544 for the heart or spirit and 1548 for a person.[4] According to the OED, as reported by Etymonline, the word was common from about 1520 to 1650, then rare until Sir Walter Scott revived it in the early 19th century.[11][14][12] Johnson (1755) gave only the transitive sense, to crush or overpower.[15] In English dialects it meant to languish, fall ill or faint,[16] and the OED records the wilting of plants as a Caribbean use and the transitive "daunt" as Irish English.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 1400 – to decline, waste away, wither.[4] Etymonline dates the sense to have a morbid craving to the same time.[11]
  • c. 1450 – of an undertaking, to fail, come to nothing.[4]
  • 1526 – transitive, to daunt, intimidate.[4]
  • 1533 – transitive, to spoil, put an end to (until 1654).[4]
  • 1544 – of the heart or spirit, to flinch, give way through fear.[4]
  • 1548 – of a person, to lose heart, cower.[4] Barnhart dates the sense to 1555.[14]
  • 1557 – of courage, to fail, grow faint.[4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To lose courage; to shrink back or cower in fear: The recruits quailed before the sergeant's glare.[18][2][4]
  2. (now rare) To daunt or dismay someone; to cause to quail.[4][15]
  3. (dialect) To waste away or wither.[2][4][16]
  4. (archaic) To give way or fail.[2][4]

Word family

  • unquailing
  • coagulate
  • quell

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  6. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  12. ^ a b c d Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  13. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  15. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  16. ^ a b c d Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  17. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  18. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  19. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  20. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  21. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul

Related etymologies

  • snuff · also from Middle Dutch
  • hoist · also from Middle Dutch
  • spout · also from Middle Dutch
  • mite · also from Middle Dutch
  • husk · also from Middle Dutch
  • bully · also from Middle Dutch
  • dapper · also from Middle Dutch
  • easel · also from Middle Dutch
Cite this entry

“Quail.” Etymologically, 2 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/quail. Accessed 2 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·