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The meaning and origin of the expression: The collywobbles

The collywobbles

What's the meaning of the phrase 'The collywobbles'?

A state of intestinal disorder, usually accompanied by a rumbling stomach; for example, 'butterflies in the stomach'.

What's the origin of the phrase 'The collywobbles'?

The origin isn't known for certain.

Colly is an English dialect word meaning coal dust. Blackbirds were hence known as colly birds. The song Twelve days of Christmas is usually sung as 'my true love sent to me, four calling birds'... but the actual line is 'four colly birds'. Colly-wobbles could have derived from indisposition caused by breathing coal dust.

It is more likely that this is a nonsense word formed from colic and wobble. The earliest citation of it is from Pierce Egan's edition of Grose's Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1823:

"Collywobbles, the gripes."

The nonsense origin is supported by two other early references, clearly used with comic intent.

- Punch October 1841: "To keep him from getting the collywobbles in his pandenoodles."

- Cuthbert Bede The Adventures of Mister Verdant Green, 1853: "A touch of the mulligrubs in your collywobbles?"

See other phrases first recorded by Captain Francis Grose.

Gary Martin - the author of the phrases.org.uk website.

By Gary Martin

Gary Martin is a writer and researcher on the origins of phrases and the creator of the Phrase Finder website. Over the past 26 years more than 700 million of his pages have been downloaded by readers. He is one of the most popular and trusted sources of information on phrases and idioms.

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