Qualm

See also: qualm

German

FWOTD – 7 May 2020

Alternative forms

• Kwalm (archaic, rare)

Etymology

16th century, from Middle Low German quallem (“vapor, steam, smoke”). Cognate with Dutch kwalm. Usually considered a derivative of quellen (“to well, swell up”).

Alternatively with the common Low and Central German development dw-, tw- → qu- (as in quer, Quark etc.) from Old Saxon dwalm (“benumbment, bemusement”), cognate of Old High German twalm, Old English dwolma. Further from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeuə- (“spray, swirl, whirl”). However, the documented meanings seem to speak against this.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kvalm/, [kʋalm], [kv̥alm]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: Qualm

Noun

Qualm m (strong, genitive Qualmes or Qualms, no plural)

1. smoke, particularly when very dense or regarded as unpleasant; fume

   Synonyms: Rauch, Schmauch

   beißender, dichter, dicker, weißer, schwarzer Qualm

   acrid, dense, thick, white, black smoke/fumes

   Zigarettenqualm ― cigarette smoke

   • 1964, Dieter Noll, Die Abenteuer des Werner Holt: Roman einer Heimkehr (Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 1964), page 307 (GoogleBooks; retrieved 19 July 2015)

     Fern erhob sich die Silhouette der Brikettfabrik mit ihren Schloten, und die Schornsteine spien Qualm aus, schwarzen, undurchdringlichen Rauch, der sich wie ein Vorhang vor den Horizont legte. In dieser Wand aus Wolken und Qualm und Morgendunst stand blutrot die Sonnenscheibe.

     Far off rose up the silhouette of the briquette factory with its smokestacks, and those chimneys disgorged thick fumes, black, dense smoke, that drew before the horizon like a curtain. In this wall of clouds and thick fumes and morning haze stood blood-redly the Sun′s disc.

Declension

Declension of Qualm [sg-only, masculine, strong]

	singular
	indef.	def.	noun
nominative	ein	der	Qualm
genitive	eines	des	Qualmes, Qualms
dative	einem	dem	Qualm, Qualme1
accusative	einen	den	Qualm

¹Now rare, see notes.

Synonyms

• (regional) Wasen/Wrasen, Brodel, Schwalch, Schwalk, Schmok

See also

• Dampf
• Dunst

Further reading

• “Qualm” in Duden online
• “Qualm” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “Qualm” in Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm, 16 vols., Leipzig 1854–1961.