Quail

Quail

Verb & Noun · /kweɪl/ · (v) to feel fear and shrink back; (n) a small game bird

Definition

As a verb, to quail means to feel or show fear — to lose heart, to flinch, or to shrink from something that frightens. As a noun, a quail is a small, plump, short-tailed game bird of the family Phasianidae, found across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. The two meanings are unrelated in origin, but they share the same spelling and pronunciation — one of English's more striking homonyms. In literary and formal usage, the verb quail is the more interesting of the two: she did not quail in the face of opposition, meaning she did not flinch or back down.

Origin

The verb quail comes from Middle Dutch quelen, meaning to suffer or to be ill. It entered English in the 15th century with the sense of failing in courage or health. The noun quail — the bird — comes from Old French quaille, probably an imitation of the bird's call. The two words merged in spelling and pronunciation entirely by coincidence, not by shared ancestry. The verb is the rarer of the two in modern English, which makes it all the more striking when a writer chooses it.