squeamish

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   easily made nauseated, disgusted, or distressed by something unpleasant

   He is too squeamish to watch a surgical procedure.

2. 2
   adj

   reluctant to do or accept something because of excessive delicacy or moral scruple

   The committee was not squeamish about confronting the report's disturbing evidence.

The origin is uncertain. It continues Middle English squaimous or queimous, probably from Anglo-Norman, and may also have been influenced by dialectal sweamish, from sweam ("dizziness or a sudden feeling of sickness").

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