quelch

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

the verb is marked as "rare" in the dictionaries that have it at all,
and it seems not to have been used much since the late 19th century,
but here's a use from the newsgroup ba.motss, 10/19/04, from David
Kaye:
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Our whole system is built on protest and dissent.  And if the Bushists
are going to quelch even the mildest form of dissent, this country is
no better than Germany under Hitler.
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this caught my eye, so i asked the poster:
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> did you write what you intended here, or is "quelch" a typo?
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to which he replied this morning:
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I'm using "quelch" as the equivalent of "squelch", meaning to suppress
or strangle.  Yes, it was intentional.  I prefer "quelch" to "squelch".
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"quelch" apparently originated as a shortening of "squelch" (cf.
"quash" and "squash").  but several people have suggested to me that in
its occasional current appearances it's a blend of "quell" and
"squelch".  goodness knows how you'd tell.

arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)