whelk

whelk

English

a whelk shell

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wɛlk/
• (without the wine–whine merger) IPA^(key): /hwɛlk/
• Rhymes: -ɛlk

Etymology 1

From Middle English whelke, a variant of Middle English welke, from Old English weoloc, wiloc, wioloc, weluc, from Proto-Germanic *welukaz (“snail”) (compare Middle Dutch willoc, Dutch wulk), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *wel- (“to turn, revolve”) (whence vulva and volute) Spelling wh- from 15th century.[1]

Noun

whelk (plural whelks)

1. Certain edible sea snails, especially, any one of numerous species of large marine gastropods belonging to Buccinidae, much used as food in Europe.

Derived terms

• Asian rapa whelk
• dog whelk
• veined rapa whelk

Translations

edible sea snail of the family Buccinidae

Abkhaz: please add this translation if you can Bulgarian: please add this translation if you can Chinese: Mandarin: 峨螺 (zh) (éluó) Danish: konk c Dutch: wulk (nl) Faroese: gágga f Finnish: kuningaskotilo French: buccin (fr) m, bulot (fr) Galician: bucio m, buguina f, cornecho m Georgian: please add this translation if you can German: Wellhornschnecke (de) f Greek: φουσκαλίδα (el) f (fouskalída)

Icelandic: beitukóngur (is) m Irish: faocha choirn f, faocha chapaill f Japanese: エゾバイ (ezobai), ツブ (tsubu) Maori: huamutu, kākara Portuguese: búzio (pt) m Romanian: please add this translation if you can Russian: труборо́г m (truboróg), труба́ч (ru) m (trubáč) (моллю́ск) Serbo-Croatian: volak (sh) m Spanish: buccino m Swedish: vanlig valthornssnäcka c Turkish: please add this translation if you can Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can West Flemish: wullok m

Etymology 2

From Middle English whelke, from Old English hwelca (“pustule, swelling”).

Noun

whelk (plural whelks)

1. (archaic) Pimple
2. A stripe or mark; a ridge; a wale.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

Derived terms

• chin whelk

References

1. “whelk” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.

Further reading

• whelk on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Boccinum on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Boccinidae on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons