queal means to faint away. It carries an Arena rating of 1380, earned across 73 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, queal ranks #202 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #1,488 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #2,336 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #2,958 of 17,140 for Most Whimsical Words.
Why “queal” is a great word
QUEAL — [Verb] To faint or swoon away. From Middle English quelen, from Old English cwelan ("to die"), from Proto-West Germanic *kwelan, from Proto-Germanic *kwelaną ("to suffer"), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷelH- ("to sting, pierce"). Unlike quail, which implies a faltering of courage before a threat, or swoon, which suggests a surrender to rapture or shock, to queal is the stark, physical cessation of consciousness itself. It is the kitchen maid slumping against the cold larder wall, the soldier sliding silently from his saddle from sheer exhaustion, or the sudden, weightless buckling of knees in a crowded church—a brief, personal puncture in the fabric of the day.
Etymology
From Middle English quelen, from Old English cwelan (“to die”), from Proto-West Germanic *kwelan, from Proto-Germanic *kwelaną (“to suffer”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷelH- (“to sting, pierce”). Related to Middle Dutch quelen, queilen. Doublet of quail.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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