Welsh

Meaning

Adj

1. Of or pertaining to Wales.
2. Of or pertaining to the Celtic language of Wales.
3. Designating plants or animals from or associated with Wales.
4. Indigenously British; pertaining to the Celtic peoples who inhabited much of Britain before the Roman occupation.

Noun

1. The Welsh language.
2. The people of Wales.
3. A breed of pig, kept mainly for bacon.

Name

1. An English and Scottish surname transferred from the nickname for someone who was a Welshman or a Celt.
2. An Irish surname, a variant of Walsh.
3. A town in Louisiana, United States, named for early landowner Henry Welsh.
4. An unincorporated community in Ohio, United States, named for an early settler.

Synonyms

Welshman

Cymric

Cambrian

Welsh Black

Cymry

W.

taffy

Welshwoman

𐐎𐐯𐑊𐑇

Cymraeg

Pronounced as (IPA)

/wɛlʃ/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: Walsch

Inherited from Old English: wīelisċ

Cognate with Old English: wealh

Cognate with Church Slavic: Влахъ

In summary

From Middle English Walsch, Welische, from Old English wīelisċ (“Briton; Roman; Celt”), from Proto-West Germanic *walhisk, from Proto-Germanic *walhiskaz (“Celt; later Roman”), from *walhaz (“Celt, Roman”) (compare Old English wealh), from the name of the Gaulish tribe, the Volcae (recorded only in Latin contexts).
This word was borrowed from Germanic into Slavic (compare Old Church Slavonic Влахъ (Vlaxŭ, “Vlachs, Romanians”), Byzantine Greek Βλάχος (Blákhos)).
Doublet of Vellish. Compare Walloon, walnut, Vlach, Walach, Gaul, Cornwall.