Whelk¹

Forms: α. 1 wioloc, wiloc, wyloc, (2 wilque), 4–5 wylke, 4–8 wilke, 5–9 wilk. β. 7–9 whilk. γ. 1 weoloc, -uc, (2 welche), 2–7 welke, 4–7 welk, 6 wealk. δ. 5–6 whelke, 7– whelk. ε. 5 wolke, 5–6 walke. [OE. wioloc, weoloc = WFlem. willok, wullok (whence OF. willo): of obscure origin. The unetymological spelling with wh begins in the 15th cent.] A marine gastropod mollusk of the genus Buccinum, having a turbinate shell, esp. B. undatum, common on the European and North American coasts, much used for food.

  Also applied, esp. with qualifying word, to mollusks of allied genera, as the hairy or ribbon whelks of the genera Fulgur and Sycotypus, the red whelk (Chrysodomus antiquus), the rough whelk (Urosalpinx cinerea), the DOG-WHELK of the genus Nassa; see also quots.

  α.  c. 725.  Corpus Gloss. (Hessels), C 865. Coccum, wioloc.

c. 875.  Erfurt Gloss., 267. Coc[h]leas, uuylocas.

1312–3.  Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 10. In lempetis, Wylkes.

c. 1425.  Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 642/6. Hec tortuga, wylke.

1500–20.  Dunbar, Poems, lxxxii. 24. At your hie Croce,… thair is bot crudis and milk; And at ȝour Trone bot cokill and wilk.

1565.  Googe, trans. Palingenius’ Zodiac, VII. A a j. Scallops of the baye, And Wilks, & Irchin eke.

1624.  Capt. J. Smith, Virginia, V. 180. One … hid himselfe in the Woods, and liued onely on Wilkes and land Crabs.

1782.  P. H. Bruce, Mem., XII. Their shell-fish are conques, perriwinkles, coneys, sogers, wilkes, [etc.].

1835.  Dickens, Sk. Boz, Greenwich Fair. Divers specimens of a species of snail (wilks, we think they are called).

1841.  J. T. Hewlett, Parish Clerk, III. 232. Searching for … wilks, periwinkles, and other shellfish.

  β.  1668.  Charleton, Onomast., 182. Cochleæ, Sea-Snails, Whilks, or Porwinkles, & Periwinkles.

1713.  Tyldesley, Diary (1873), 79. Cos Tom Carus and his lady sup^d with us on whilkes in the shell.

1773.  Johnson, Lett. to Mrs. Thrale, 30 Sept. Muscles and whilks in their natural state.

1823.  E. Moor, Suffolk Words, Whilk or Whelk.

  γ.  c. 900.  trans. Bæda’s Hist., I. i. (1890), 26. Her beoð swyþe ʓenihtsume weolocas, of þam bið ʓeweorht se weolocreada tælgh.

c. 1050.  in Wr.-Wülcker, 293/25. Coclea, weoluc.

c. 1170.  Marie de France, Fables, xii. 3. Une welke [v.rr. welche, wilque] truva entiere.

1290.  in Archaeologia, XV. 352. Pro ij lampred’ iij^s pro welkes vi^d.

13[?].  Liber Albus (Rolls), I. 244. Oysters, welkes, muskeles ou soel.

1339.  Little Red Bk. Bristol (1900), II. 23/1. De anguillis, ostriis, conchiris, welkes, floundris et aliis quibuscunque minutis piscibus venalibus.

c. 1420.  Liber Cocorum (1862), 17. Take welkes and wasshe fayre.

1555.  Eden, Decades (Arb.), 237. The shelles of certeyne great welkes.

1606.  N. B[axter], Sydney’s Ourania, D 1 b. There growen the Scallop, Cockle, Welke, and Oyster.

1668.  Wilkins, Real Char., II. v. § 7. 129.

  δ.  14[?].  Metr. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 625. Whelke, concha.

1583.  in Feuillerat, Revels Q. Eliz. (1908), 361. For mendinge of iiij whelkes shelles and Couloringe them.

1655.  Moufet & Bennet, Health’s Improv., 164. Perwinckles or Whelks, are nothing but sea-snails, feeding upon the finest mud of the shore and the best weeds.

c. 1711.  Petiver, Gazophyl., viii. 27. Limington Bottle Whelk.

1815.  S. Brookes, Conchol., 202. Strombus Lucifer, Spiked Whelk.

1862.  Macm. Mag., Oct., 503. The whelks, clams,… and occasionally the crabs, are used by the fishermen as bait for their white fish lines.

1874.  A. H. Markham, Whaling Cruise, ii. 19. By way of supper I was initiated into the mysteries of ‘whelks.’

  ε.  c. 1430.  Two Cookery-bks., 23. Take Walkys an sethe in Ale.

1444.  Maldon, Essex Crt.-rolls, Bundle 26 No. 1 b (MS.). Vendidit in mercato pisces fetentes, viz. wolkis.

1589.  Rider, Bibl. Schol., I. 1724. A walke, or wrinkle, turbo.

  † b.  The shell of this mollusk, or a representation of it. Obs.

1575.  Laneham, Lett. (1907), 52. Tunneyz, Conchs, & wealks: all engrauen by exquisit deuize and skill.

1605.  Jonson, Masques, Of Blacknesse, Wks. (1616), 894. Torch-bearers … all hauing their lights burning out of whelks, or murex shells.

  † c.  A structure resembling a whelk-shell; a testudo. Obs.

1408–9.  trans. Vegetius’ De Re Milit., IV. xiv. (Roy. MS. 18 A. XII), lf. 105. The gynne that is clepede the snayle or the welke.

  d.  attrib. and Comb., as whelk-boat, -man, -pot (POT sb.¹ 5 b), -shell, -snail, -stall, -tribe; whelk-like, -shaped adjs.; whelk-tingle, the DOG-WHELK.

1419.  Liber Albus (Rolls), I. 343. Item, quantum dabit *welkbot de v tandles.

1900.  Daily News, 17 Aug., 7/1. Two fishermen went off in a whelk boat.

1861.  P. P. Carpenter, in Rep. Smithsonian Inst., 1860, 180. A *whelk-like dentition.

1851.  Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 163/2. The *whelkmen, who are the biggest rogues in Billingsgate.

1883.  Fisheries Exhib. Catal., 10. Set of *Whelk Pots with Gear.

1861.  P. P. Carpenter, in Rep. Smithsonian Inst., 1860, 185. One group … in which the shell is thin and *whelk-shaped.

c. 725.  Corpus Gloss. (Hessels), C 530. Conquilium, *wiloc scel.

c. 1440.  Astron. Cal. (MS. Ashm. 391). Capricorne þat is þe signe of a goot in a welke shelle.

1681.  Grew, Musæum, I. VI. i. 131. ’Tis usual to give Drink to Children that have the Chin-Cough, out of a Wilk-shell.

1891.  Science-Gossip, XXVII. 71. The hermit crab … which always lives in empty whelk shells.

1681.  Grew, Musæum, I. VI. i. 131. The *Wilk-Snail winding, from the Mouth towards the right Hand.

1842.  Punch, III. 74/2. The adjacent *whell-stall.

1882.  Standard, 26 Sept., 2/2. The dog-whelk or *‘whelk tingle.’

1835.  Kirby, Hab. & Inst. Anim., I. ix. 279. The Buccinidan or *Whelk tribe.