Quell, squelch and quench
July 30th, 2008 at 07:00am Barry Wood
The phrase “to squelch the flames with fire extinguishers” is close but no cigar.
To “squelch” is “to crush or smash by or as by falling or stamping upon; squash” or, informally, “to suppress or silence completely and with a crushing effect.”
Technically, you can squelch a small fire, like a burning cigarette, by stamping on it — or smashing it with a fire extinguisher.
A similar word is “quell,” meaning either “to crush; subdue; put an end to” or “to quiet; allay.”
“Garner’s Modern American Usage” advises that “squelch” works better for suppressing ideas, feelings and the like, while “quell” is the word of choice for “stifling a violent uprising or competitive bid.”
So you would try to squelch talk of a rebellion, and failing that, try to quell the ensuing riots.
As for putting out larger fires, a better verb is “quench.”
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2 Comments Add your own
1. Leonardo duh Vinci | July 31st, 2008 at 6:22 am
Your using the qu words, quench, quaff, reminds me of the Scrabble game “dictionary” and in it is the word qua. And, among others, it says aa is a word. Sometimes I’d like to take that dictionary and just squatch it.
2. Barry Wood | August 6th, 2008 at 1:29 am
Oh, those Scrabble squabbles!
I was surprised to find “qua” in the dictionary. It’s a form of the Latin word for “who,” and in English means “in the function, character or capacity of.” Fortunately, it’s rarely used, except in the phrase “sine qua non,” Latin for “without which not.” In English, it means “as essential condition, qualification, etc.; indispensable thing; absolute prerequisite.” In each instance, “sine qua non” saves you a bunch of letters.
As for good old “aa,” it’s Hawaiian for a certain kind of lava. Not much call for it in the Midwest. One interesting thing about it: “aa” is only two letters, but it’s also two syllables. There can’t be many of those around.
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