Quail

How to spell quail

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce quail

What does quail mean?

1. nounA small, plump game bird related to the partridge, often raised for its meat and eggs.
2. verbTo lose courage and shrink back in fear or apprehension.

Quail in a sentence

• noun

  The restaurant served roasted quail with a redcurrant sauce.

• verb

  The new recruits did not quail when the sergeant began to shout.

• noun

  A covey of quail burst from the long grass as the dog approached.

• verb

  She refused to quail before the hostile board of directors.

Where does quail come from?

Language of origin: French

This spelling actually hides two separate words that fell together. The bird called a quail came into English in the 1300s from Old French quaille, which traces back to Medieval Latin quaccula; that Latin form was imitative, an attempt to spell out the rasping, repetitive call the small game bird makes, so the name is essentially the sound of the creature itself. The verb quail, meaning to lose heart or shrink back in fear, is of murkier origin and appeared a little later in the medieval period; many scholars connect it to Middle Dutch quelen, meaning to suffer or be ill, while others have linked it to an old verb for curdling or wilting. Over time the two unrelated words settled on the same spelling, with the soft ai vowel that catches writers who expect a more phonetic ay or ai split. Because the verb sense is faintly archaic now, the bird is the meaning most adults reach for first.

How the word is built

• quail (a single, non-decomposable root; no productive prefix or suffix)