[OE. cwellere = ON. kveljari: see QUELL v.1 and -ER1.] One who quells, in senses of the vb.
Freq. as a second element in combs., e.g., boy-, child-, devil-, giant-, manqueller.
c. 900. trans. Bæda’s Hist., I. vii. (1890), 38. Se sylfa cwellere ðe hine slean sceolde.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Mark vi. 27. Se cinincg … sende ænne cwellere.
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., I. 37/116. [To] Iosie þe quellare he was bi-take.
1388. Wyclif, Tobit iii. 9. Thou sleeresse [v.r. quellere] of thin hosebondis.
c. 1520. Barclay, Jugurtha (ed. 2), 48. The ioye of the quellars and murderers.
1671. Milton, P. R., IV. 633. Hail Son of the most High … Queller of Satan.
1804. W. Taylor, in Ann. Rev., II. 219. The promoters and quellers of the Wexford insurrection.
1881. Seeley, Bonaparte, in Macm. Mag., XLIV. 168/2. The queller of Jacobinism … Bonaparte.
