Old English Wielisc, Wylisc (West Saxon), Welisc, Wælisc (Anglian and Kentish) "foreign; British (not Anglo-Saxon), Welsh; not free, servile," from Wealh, Walh "Celt, Briton, Welshman, non-Germanic foreigner;" in Tolkien's definition, "common Gmc. name for a man of what we should call Celtic speech," but also applied in Germanic languages to speakers of Latin, hence Old High German Walh, Walah "Celt, Roman, Gaulish," and Old Norse Val-land "France," Valir "Gauls, non-Germanic inhabitants of France" (Danish vælsk "Italian, French, southern"); from Proto-Germanic *Walkhiskaz, from a Celtic tribal name represented by Latin Volcæ (Caesar) "ancient Celtic tribe in southern Gaul."
As a noun, "the Britons," also "the Welsh language," both from Old English. The word survives in Wales, Cornwall, Walloon, walnut, and in surnames Walsh and Wallace. Borrowed in Old Church Slavonic as vlachu, and applied to the Rumanians, hence Wallachia. Among the English, Welsh was used disparagingly of inferior or substitute things (such as Welsh cricket "louse" (1590s); Welsh comb "thumb and four fingers" (1796), and compare welch (v.)). Welsh rabbit is from 1725, also perverted by folk-etymology as Welsh rarebit (1785).
中文解释
1. racing slang, "to refuse or avoid payment of money laid as a bet," probably a disparaging use of the national name Welsh.
实用例句
1. The western-most part of north Wales is a stronghold of Welsh-speakers.
北威尔士最西部是说威尔士语人的聚居区。
来自柯林斯例句
2. Welsh international Matthew Postle was third fastest at the halfway point.
到半程时，威尔士的世界级选手马修·波斯特尔位居第三。
来自柯林斯例句
3. Since the Sixties, afforestation has changed the Welsh countryside.
60年代以来，植树造林已经改变了威尔士的乡村面貌。
来自柯林斯例句
4. He wants actors who can speak Welsh. Obviously I've had it.
他要的是会说威尔士语的演员。明摆着，我是没指望了。
来自柯林斯例句
5. Stephen ventured a few more sentences in halting Welsh.