quell

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English quellen (“to kill”),^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English cwellan (“to kill, put to death”),^[5][3][6][7] from Proto-Germanic *kwaljaną,^[3][6][8] a causative formation from the Germanic base of cwelan (“to die”).^[5][9][10] It is cognate with Old Saxon quellian (“to torture, kill”), Dutch kwellen (“to vex, torment”), Old High German quellen (“to torture, kill”), German quälen (“to torment”) and Old Norse kvelja (“to torment”).^{[5][3][6][11]} The same base gives cwalu (“violent death”) and the Old English source of qualm.^[3][6] Etymonline traces it to Proto-Indo-European *gʷel- (“to throw, reach; to pierce”),^[3][4] and Barnhart compares Lithuanian gėlà (“pain”).^[6] Ayto thinks the word probably closely related to kill, suggesting that a Germanic variant Proto-Germanic *kuljan could have produced it,^[12] whereas the Century Dictionary, quoted by Etymonline, called that identification mistaken.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To kill, put to death: Old English, in King Alfred's translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care.^[5] Barnhart dates the Old English verb to before 725.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The original sense "kill" lasted through Middle English (Ayto quotes William of Palerne, about 1350, on birds and small beasts that a man quells with his bow) and is last recorded by the OED in 1817.^[12][5] Wyclif's Bible has man quellers for murderers.^[13] The milder sense "crush, subdue" is already Old English,^[5] and "put an end to, suppress" is recorded about 1200 in the Ormulum, according to Barnhart, though the OED's first record is from before 1325.^[6][5] Etymonline dates the sense "reduce to peace or subjection" to the 1560s.^[3] Spenser used the word intransitively for "to abate, come to nothing" (1579), a use that died out by 1616.^[5] Johnson (1755) defined it as "to crush; to subdue; originally, to kill", and entered the noun quell, murder, as no longer in use, quoting the line "our great quell" from Macbeth.^[14][15] In Scots and some English dialects it meant to subdue or quench, with a Scots form quall.^[16]

Timeline

• Old English – to kill, put to death (obsolete after 1817).^[5][7]
• Old English – to crush or overcome; to subdue.^[5]
• c. 1200 – to put an end to, suppress, in the Ormulum.^[6] The OED's first record of the sense is from before 1325.^[5]
• before 1425 – noun, killing, slaughter; later the quelling of something.^[5][17]
• 1579 – intransitive, to abate, come to nothing (obsolete by 1616).^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To put down a rebellion, riot or disorder, usually by force; to suppress.^[18][17][5]
2. To calm or put an end to a feeling or worry; to allay: The minister's speech did little to quell their fears.^[18][17]
3. (archaic) To kill, slay.^[17][5][15]

Noun

1. (archaic) Killing, slaughter; also the act or power of quelling.^[17][15][5]

Word family

• queller
• quellable

Related words

• qualm
• quail
• kill

Usage notes

A separate, rare verb quell, to well up or flow, is recorded from 1340 in the Ayenbite of Inwit;^[5][2] it is cognate with Middle Low German quellen and German quellen (“to gush, well up”), and in later use was perhaps partly borrowed from German.^[5][2] A noun quell, a spring or fountain, recorded from 1875 in a Sussex dialect dictionary, is either from that verb or from German Quelle (“spring, source”).^[5][15]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
12. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ 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 d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
18. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins