English
wealh
Wealh comes from Old English wealh ‘Welsh person’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *walhaz ‘a Celt, a Celtic-speaker’.
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*walhaz‘a Celt, a Celtic-speaker’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*walh‘foreigner, non-Germanic person’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150wealh‘Welsh person’
- Englishearliest quotation 1885same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*walhaz‘a Celt, a Celtic-speaker’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*walh‘foreigner, non-Germanic person’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150wealh‘Welsh person’
- Englishearliest quotation 1885same form
Earliest quotation: 1885, John Beddoe, Bristol: J. W. Arrowsmith: “It is possible that the services on the royal…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *wĺ̥kʷos ‘wolf’
Today it means
noun In Anglo-Saxon England, a speaker of a Brythonic language, especially Welsh.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *walhaz / wealh