whelk

English

a whelk shell

Alternative forms

• welk, whilk
• (obsolete) wilk

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wɛlk/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

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

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

Synonyms

• scungilli

Derived terms

• Asian rapa whelk
• dog whelk
• knobbed whelk
• veined rapa whelk
• whelk stall

Translations

edible sea snail of the family Buccinidae

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 峨螺 (zh) (éluó)

• Czech: surmovka f
• Danish: konk c
• Dutch: wulk (nl)
• Faroese: gágga f
• Finnish: kuningaskotilo
• French: buccin (fr) m, bulot (fr)
• Galician: bucio (gl) m, buguina (gl) f, cornecho m
• German: Wellhornschnecke (de) f
• Greek: φουσκαλίδα (el) f (fouskalída)
• Hungarian: kürtcsiga (hu)
• Icelandic: beitukóngur (is) m
• Irish: faocha choirn f, faocha chapaill f, cuachma f
• Japanese: エゾバイ (ezobai), ツブ (tsubu)
• Maori: huamutu, kākara
• Middle English: welk
• Old English: weoloc m
• Portuguese: búzio (pt) m
• Russian: труборо́г m (truboróg), труба́ч (ru) m (trubáč) (моллю́ск)
• Scottish Gaelic: faochag f, cnomhag f, faochan m, cnomhadan m, conach m, faochag-mhór f, cona-bhocan m, conachag f, gobhar-breac m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: во́лак m

  Roman: vólak (sh) m

• Spanish: buccino m
• Swedish: vanlig valthornssnäcka c
• Welsh: gwichiad moch m
• West Flemish: wullok m
• Yoruba: kùnrùngbị́ngbị́n

Etymology 2

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

Noun

whelk (plural whelks)

1. (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[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene v]:

     his face is all bubukles , and whelks , and knobs

2. A stripe or mark; a ridge; a wale.

Derived terms

• chin whelk

Further reading

• whelk on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Buccinidae on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Category:Buccinidae on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons