whelk
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a whelk shell
English
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /wɛlk/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
- (without the wine–whine merger) IPA(key): /hwɛlk/
- Rhymes: -ɛlk
Etymology 1
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.
Noun
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
Derived terms
Translations
edible sea snail of the family Buccinidae
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Etymology 2
From Middle English whelke, from Old English hwelca (“pustule, swelling”).
Noun
whelk (plural whelks)
- (archaic) Pimple.
- 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :
- his face is all bubukles , and whelks , and knobs
- A stripe or mark; a ridge; a wale.
Derived terms
References
- ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “whelk”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
Further reading
whelk on Wikipedia.Wikipedia 
Buccinidae on Wikispecies.Wikispecies 
Category:Buccinidae on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
