Old English · noun
wealh
- Part of speech
- noun, masculine
- Declension
- strong a-stem
- IPA
- /wæ͜ɑlx/[wæ͜ɑɫx]
- Syllables
- wæ͜ɑlx (1 syllable)
- Modern English
- celtwealhforeignerwelsh
Meaning
-
Celt
-
Welsh person
-
Roman
-
foreigner
-
slave
hoc sapiens mancipium þēs wīsa weal hos sapiens mancipium this wise slave
c. 995, Ælfric, Excerptiones de Arte Grammatica Anglice
Declension
All forms (6)
Etymology
From Proto-West Germanic *walh, from Proto-Germanic *walhaz, from a Celtic name also represented by Latin Volcae. Having originally apparently referred to a neighboring Celtic tribe, it was broadened to refer to any inhabitant of the Western Roman Empire and then, in Britain, narrowed to refer to native Brythons, and later to Welsh people in particular. Owing to the presence of native Brythonic slaves in some areas, it also came to be used to refer to slaves (compare semantic formation of Slav), though only alongside – never supplanting – its ethnic meaning. The narrowing of meaning away from …
Descendants
wealh
Source: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wealh · CC BY-SA 4.0 licence · Attribution