Collywobbles

Strange English Word #2

Photo by Sven Brandsma on Unsplash

Collywobbles or “the collywobbles”

Collywobbles is a silly word that means stomach ache or queasiness. For example, when you eat too much cake, you could say, “O boy, that cake is giving me the collywobbles!”

We can’t say with certainty who first grabbed their tummy and uttered this funny-sounding word. However, we know that the earliest appearance of this word in print was in 1823 and that it most likely came about in a process known as “folk etymology.” That means unusual, difficult-to-pronounce, or odd-sounding words are transformed to make them easier to pronounce or sound like more familiar words.

Some believe that collywobbles may have originally come from the Latin term cholera morbus (cholera) or that it was influenced by the words colic and wobble.

Here are a few more examples to inspire you to integrate this fantastically silly word into your vocabulary:

• After a few moments on the roller coaster, everyone began to experience the galloping collywobbles and the twittering jitters.
• We continued staring straight into his eyes until the collywobbles arrived.
• “Let’s get out of here; this place gives me the collywobbles!”
• “That pill you got there will take care of your…