Vlach

Meaning

Noun

• A Wallachian.
• A Romanian.
• Any member of an Eastern Romance speaking group, including Romanians, Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians, and Istro-Romanians.
• Any member of a Polish ethnographic group (subgroup of Silesians) living around the towns of Cieszyn and Skoczów

Origin

• From Proto-Slavic *volxъ ("speaker of a Romance language"), from Proto-Germanic *walhaz ("non-Germanic foreigner, Celt; later Roman"). Presumably introduced into Slavic around the 7th century, but first recorded only in the 11th century in Byzantine Greek. In English used as a synonym of "Wallachian" from the 19th century. The word is etymologically distantly related to Wales/Welsh, Walloon, and Gaul. Gaul.