collywobbles

noun /ˈkɒlɪwɒb(ə)lz/

1. A stomach ache or an upset stomach.

   informal

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

2. Anxiety, fear, uneasiness.

   informal

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

Where it comes from

Probably from colic (“severe pains that grip the abdomen”) + wobble (“unsteady motion”). 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), or that it is a corruption of cholera.

Adapted from the Wiktionary entry collywobbles (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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