Hopefully will make this a weekly event, words found whilst doing my writing and researching. Feel free to email me with any you’d like included.
A disordered state of the stomach characterized by rumbling in the intestines; diarrhœa with stomach-ache; hence gen. indisposition, ‘butterflies in the stomach’, a state of nervous fear. (In quot. 1853 used nonsensically.)
1823 P. Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. Vulgar Tongue (rev. ed.) , Collywobbles, the gripes.
1841 Punch 9 Oct. 154/1 To..keep him from getting the collywobbles in his pandenoodles.
1853 ‘C. Bede’ Adventures Mr. Verdant Green viii. 75 A touch of the mulligrubs in your collywobbles?
1901 F. T. Bullen Sack of Shakings 308 He laughingly excused himself on the ground that his songs were calculated to give a white man collywobbles.
1959 I. Opie & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolchildren x. 185 He is a ‘funk’..or has ‘got the collywobbles’.
And also a place in South Africa, so one wonders if it actually derived from the place – as “Delhi Belly” is used these days.
I think next week’s should be pandenoodles!
June 14, 2012 at 3:01 pm
‘Collywobbles’ my dad used to use that word. He meant stomach ache.
June 15, 2012 at 8:09 am
I was just aware of the expression as in “gives me the collywobbles” something alarming or upsetting without knowing what collywobbles actually were – now it makes sense!
June 25, 2012 at 4:41 am
I love learning new and “old” words, that are rarely used. We should start a campaign to bring them back! (also love the word “addlepated”)
July 14, 2012 at 3:51 pm
In Australia, it is also used colloquially to refer to a Football team named “Collingwood.” Especially when they lose a match, fans will say the team had the “Collywobbles”