Etymograph

English

Welsh

Welsh comes from Old English wǣlisċ ‘Briton’, from Proto-West Germanic *walhisk ‘foreign, non-Germanic’, and ultimately from Proto-Germanic *walhaz ‘celt, Roman’.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*walhaz1‘Celt’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*walhiskaz1‘Celt’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*walhisk1‘foreign’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150wǣlisċ1‘Briton’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500Walsch1
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1832Welsh1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English Welsh
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1832, Queen Victoria: “9 minutes to 2. We just stopped to have…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*walhazWiktionary, English Welsh‘Celt’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*walhiskazWiktionary, English Welsh‘Celt’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*walhiskWiktionary, English Welsh‘foreign’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150wǣlisċWiktionary, English Welsh‘Briton’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500WalschWiktionary, English Welsh
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1832WelshWiktionary, English Welsh. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1832, Queen Victoria: “9 minutes to 2. We just stopped to have…”

The story

This word was borrowed from Germanic into Slavic (compare Old Church Slavonic Влахъ (Vlaxŭ, “Vlachs, Romanians”), Byzantine Greek Βλάχος (Blákhos)).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

pairs

  • Welsh and walnut both from Proto-Germanic *walhaz ‘foreigner’

through Proto-Indo-European *wĺ̥kʷos ‘wolf’

wolf, lupus, 14 more

Today it means

adj Of or pertaining to Wales.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “Welsh”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *walhaz / Welsh

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