queasy English · revision 1307

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /ˈkwiː.zi/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is Middle English, ''kyse'', ''coisy'' or ''qweysy'',^(AHD)^(Barnhart 1995)^(Etymonline)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU) of uncertain origin.^(Etymonline)^(RHWU) It may be of Scandinavian origin, compare Old Norse ''iðra-kveisa'' “bowel pains”,^(AHD)^(Barnhart 1995)^(Etymonline) or influenced by Anglo-French ''queisier'' “to hurt, make uneasy”,^(Barnhart 1995)^(Etymonline) apparently from the same Germanic root.^(Barnhart 1995)^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Of food, unsettling to the stomach (about 1450),^(Barnhart 1995)^(Etymonline) and of times or affairs, unsettled or troublous (1459).^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ From the 1540s the word was used of people or the stomach, “inclined to nausea”.^(Etymonline)^(OED 1989) Figurative senses followed: delicate or fastidious (1545) and tender in conscience (1579).^(OED 1989) It now means both nauseated and uneasy.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * about 1450 – causing nausea.^(Barnhart 1995)^(Etymonline)

+ * 1459 – of affairs, unsettled, now obsolete.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1545 – of the stomach, easily upset.^(OED 1989)^(Etymonline)

+ * 1579 – of the conscience, tender.^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Adjective===

+ # Feeling sick; [[nauseated]].^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU)^(Wiktionary)

+ # Causing nausea.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU)

+ # Uneasy or troubled.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU)^(Wiktionary)

+ # Easily troubled; [[squeamish]].^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[queasily]]

+ * [[queasiness]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ Random House gives ''upset'', ''troubled'', ''anxious'' and ''worried'' as synonyms of the sense “uneasy”.^(RHWU)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}