collywobbles

Probably from colic (“severe pains that grip the abdomen”) + wobble (“unsteady motion”).[1] Alternatively, it has been suggested that the word derives from colly (“coal dust”) (in the sense of someone becoming ill from breathing in such dust),[2] or that it is a corruption of cholera.[3]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒlɪwɒb(ə)lz/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑliˌwɑb(ə)lz/
• Hyphenation: col‧ly‧wob‧bles

collywobbles pl (plural only) (British, informal, chiefly humorous)

1. Often preceded by the: a stomach ache or an upset stomach. [from 1823]

   Synonyms: bellyache, mulligrubs, tummyache

   Petunia’s off school today with a touch of the collywobbles.

   • [1823, [Francis Grose]; Pierce Egan, “Collywobbles”, in Grose’s Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, […], London: […] Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, […], →OCLC:

     Collywobbles, the gripes.

     Said to be the first attestation of the word in print.[2]]

   • 1894 September 10, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Letter XLIII”, in S[idney] C[olvin], editor, Vailima Letters: Being Correspondence Addressed by Robert Louis Stevenson to Sidney Colvin […], London: Methuen and Co. […], published 1895, →OCLC, page 343:

     I know I have something else to say to you, but unfortunately I awoke this morning with collywobbles, and had to take a small dose of laudanum with the usual consequences of dry throat, intoxicated legs, partial madness and total imbecility; and for the life of me I cannot remember what it is.

   • 1897, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter 3, in Liza of Lambeth, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published [1921], →OCLC, page 36:

     "I deeply regret," answered Liza, "but my royal 'ighness 'as got the collywobbles."

   • 1916 December 29, James Joyce, chapter I, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, New York, N.Y.: B[enjamin] W. Huebsch, →OCLC, page 20:

     The prefect was there again and it was his voice that was saying that he was to get up, that Father Minister had said he was to get up and dress and go to the infirmary. And while he was dressing himself as quickly as he could the prefect said: / ― We must pack off to Brother Michael because we have the collywobbles!

   • 1917, Henry Handel Richardson, chapter V, in Australia Felix, part III, New York, N.Y.: W[illiam] W[arder] Norton & Co., →OCLC, page 260:

     "D'ye hear, Richard? Now's your chance," repeated Ned, not to be done. "There's a pot o' money in it. A very different thing this, I can tell you, from running round dosing people for the collywobbles. I know men who are raising the splosh to get in, any way they can."

2. (by extension) Often preceded by the: anxiety, fear, uneasiness.

   Synonyms: butterflies, butterflies in one’s stomach, creeps, heebie-jeebies, willies

   I don’t like walking through the forest at night. It gives me the collywobbles.

   • 1943, Mary Ruth Sandifer, American Lay Opinion of the Progressive School, Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, →OCLC, page 21:

     This business of getting Bill educated has just about given me the collywobbles. You wouldn't think to look at the boy, that he could possibly be such a tragic misfit in school.

• collywobbled

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “collywobbles”, in Online Etymology Dictionary, retrieved 26 February 2017.