Welsh

Meanings

Adjective

• (Native) British; pertaining to the Celtic peoples who inhabited much of Britain before the Roman occupation.
• Foreign; non-native.
• Of or pertaining to Wales.
• Of or pertaining to the Celtic language of Wales.
• Designating plants or animals from or associated with Wales. (See Derived terms.)

Noun

• The Welsh language.
• The people of Wales.
• A breed of pig, kept mainly for bacon.

Proper Noun

• for someone who was a Welshman or a Celt.
• , a variant of Walsh.
• town Louisiana (state) US (country) named for early landowner Henry Welsh.
• (unincorporated) community Ohio (state) US (country) named for an early settler.

Related

Similar words

• Cymric, Kymric

Origin

• 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 (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 ("Vlachs, Romanians"), Byzantine Greek Βλάχος).
• Vellish. Compare Walloon, walnut, Vlach, Walach, Gaul, Cornwall.