qualm
- an uneasy feeling or pang of conscience as to conduct; compunction: He has no qualms about lying.
- a sudden feeling of apprehensive uneasiness; misgiving: a sudden qualm about the success of the venture.
- a sudden sensation or onset of faintness or illness, especially of nausea.
Origin of qualm
Examples from the Web for qualm
Contemporary Examples
Loewen proved to have one qualm that showed he was not a total monster.
Yet I admit to feeling a qualm when I hear this phrase, "moral defense."
Historical Examples
He had put her aside without a qualm; and now he met her announcement with approval.
KMary Roberts Rinehart
I feel no qualm in saying that his exit was more hasty than his approach.
Adventures and RecollectionsBill o'th' Hoylus End
Yet I had no qualm of fear, no doubt, even, touching the issue.
Bardelys the MagnificentRafael Sabatini
Then I shall be able, without a qualm, to send Godfrey to the workhouse.
The Red Hand of UlsterGeorge A. Birmingham
Ma Tamby did not know what it is to have a qualm—which she could not have spelled if she had known.
The Paliser caseEdgar Saltus
qualm
- a sudden feeling of sickness or nausea
- a pang or sudden feeling of doubt, esp concerning moral conduct; scruple
- a sudden sensation of misgiving or unease
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for qualm
n.
Old English cwealm (West Saxon) "death, murder, slaughter; disaster; plague; torment," utcualm (Anglian) "utter destruction," probably related to cwellan "to kill, murder, execute," cwelan "to die" (see quell). Sense softened to "feeling of faintness" 1520s; figurative meaning "uneasiness, doubt" is from 1550s; that of "scruple of conscience" is 1640s.
Evidence of a direct path from the Old English to the modern senses is wanting, but it is plausible, via the notion of "fit of sickness." The other suggested etymology, less satisfying, is to take the "fit of uneasiness" sense from Dutch kwalm "steam, vapor, mist" (cognate with German Qualm "smoke, vapor, stupor"), which also might be ultimately from the same Germanic root as quell.