Cwale

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. An obsolete term for death, especially a violent or painful one, drawn from older English usage
2. A rare archaic noun meaning death or slaughter, found in early English writing and now no longer in use
3. Old-fashioned English word denoting the act or state of dying, often through violence or torment

Etymology: Before the Norman Conquest, English speakers had a verb "cwelan" meaning "to die," and its causative form "cwellan" meant "to kill," the root of modern "quell." Middle English kept a form spelled "cwale" or "quale," meaning to die, languish, or waste away. The Old English stem appears in the noun "cwealm," meaning death or pestilence, which later became "qualm" in the sense of a sudden sickness or faintness. Forms like this were common in the Middle English period, but "cwale" faded from use well before Shakespeare's time, and it survives today only in historical dictionaries and in the family of related words that outlived it. The "qu" spelling of the later manuscripts reflects Anglo-Norman scribal habits rather than any change in pronunciation.

Synonyms: quell, subdue, suppress, quash, crush

Antonyms: incite, provoke