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collywobbles (KOL-ee-wob-uhlz) - n., intestinal cramps or other gastric disturbances; (Brit.) an uncomfortable feeling in the stomach caused by nervousness or fear.


Usually used in the form "the collywobbles," which though plural in form is often used as singular in practice (as a sort of collective). First used in 1823, origin uncertain but commonly speculated to be an alteration of cholera morbus, the medical Latin term for the disease cholera, influenced by the words colic and wobble.

---L.

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