whelk

English

a whelk shell

From Middle English whelke, a variant of welk, from Old English weoloc, wiloc, wioloc, weluc, from Proto-West Germanic *weluk (compare Middle Dutch willoc, Dutch wulk), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *welH- (“to turn, revolve”) (whence vulva and volute). Unetymological spelling with wh- from the 15th century.[1]

whelk (plural whelks)

Certain edible sea snails, especially, any one of numerous species of large marine gastropods belonging to Buccinidae, much used as food in Europe.

edible sea snail of the family Buccinidae

Chinese:
Mandarin: 峨螺 (zh) (éluó)
Czech: surmovka f
Danish: konk c
Dutch: wulk (nl)
Faroese: gágga f
Finnish: kuningaskotilo
French: buccin (fr) m, bulot (fr)
Galician: bucio (gl) m, buguina (gl) f, cornecho m
German: Wellhornschnecke (de) f
Greek: φουσκαλίδα (el) f (fouskalída)
Hungarian: kürtcsiga (hu)
Icelandic: beitukóngur (is) m
Irish: faocha choirn f, faocha chapaill f, cuachma f
Japanese: エゾバイ (ezobai), ツブ (tsubu)
Maori: huamutu, kākara
Middle English: welk
Old English: weoloc m
Portuguese: búzio (pt) m
Russian: труборо́г m (truboróg), труба́ч (ru) m (trubáč) (моллю́ск)
Scottish Gaelic: faochag f, cnomhag f, faochan m, cnomhadan m, conach m, faochag-mhór f, cona-bhocan m, conachag f, gobhar-breac m
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: во́лак m

Roman: vólak (sh) m
Spanish: buccino m
Swedish: vanlig valthornssnäcka c
Welsh: gwichiad moch m
West Flemish: wullok m
Yoruba: kùnrùngbị́ngbị́n

From Middle English whelke, from Old English hwelca (“pustule, swelling”).

whelk (plural whelks)

(archaic) Pimple.
- 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene v]:
  his face is all bubukles , and whelks , and knobs
A stripe or mark; a ridge; a wale.