squeamish » squirmish
Spotted in the wild:
- The giant Australian prawns ($24.95), served with the heads on (just a warning for those who are squirmish about that sort of thing), were imbued with a great smoky flavor. (Dale Rice, American-Statesman Restaurant Critic, posted on Truluck's site: Nov 2, 2005)
- And the muchado about nothing regarding DoD paid propoganda in Iraq also shows that the idea of “winning hearts and minds” sound great as a concept, but Americans (or at least the media) is squirmish when they actually see it in action. (Daniel W. Drezner's blog, comment, Dec 05 2005)
- [poster Supafly:]Don’t get squirmish about some fake titties in the camera.
[poster Trilex:] I’m not squirmish but I was just embarressed cuz my uncle, my cousins dad was there! (Nexodyne Forums, Aug 22, 2003) - The Passion Of Christ, Not for the Squirmish (Expats In China)
Analyzed or reported by:
- Linda Seebach (via e-mail)
Linda Seebach, editorial writer at the Rocky Mountain News, supplied the example from Daniel Drezner’s blog.
The words squeamish and squirm both have comparatively unclear etymologies, but don’t appear to spring from a common origin. The former is several centuries older than the latter.
Sometimes, squirmish can be found where the noun skirmish would be expected. An example from and interview transcript on ABC Online, Australia:
The story of the appointment of Robert Gerard has become a proxy leadership squirmish between supporters of Peter Costello and John Howard.
1
Commentary by Simon , 2005/12/16 at 5:57 am
hmm seems like a conscious creation to me is there any evidence of confusion?
2
Commentary by Sean , 2006/01/01 at 8:53 am
A friend of mine calls the paintball game ‘Skirmish’ Squirmish just to be funny. Deliberate malaprop though…
3
Commentary by Cryptic Ned , 2006/10/19 at 12:02 am
Guided by Voices recorded a song called “Squirmish Frontal Room” in 1991. The lyrics don’t make any sense, so it’s difficult to tell if “squeamish” is what they meant to say. There is sort of a sense of revulsion and “not wanting to do something” implied though.