List of English words of Welsh origin

This is a list of English language words of Welsh language origin. As with the Goidelic languages, the Brythonic tongues are close enough for possible derivations from Cumbric, Cornish or Breton in some cases.

Words that derive from Welsh

; bard : from Welsh "bardd", or possibly Goidelic origin; brock : in dialect meaning a badger, from Old British "brokkos" meaning a badger; car, cart : both Welsh words; originally from Old Celtic "karrom, karros". They came to English via Latin "carrum, carrus," and hence the words carry, carrier and carriage.; coracle : from "corwgl"; corgi : From "cor", "dwarf" + "gi" (soft mutation of "ci"), "dog".; druid : 'derwydd', possibly derived from 'derw' meaning 'oak'.; flannel : The Oxford English Dictionary states that the etymology of this word is "uncertain", but that it is likely to have come from the Welsh "gwlanen", "flannel". Another suggested source is Old French "flaine", "blanket".; flummery: "llymru" [Etymology of "flummery" covered on the A Word A Day mailing list in [http://wordsmith.org/awad/archives/1206 December 2006] ] ; kistvaen: from the Welsh "cist" (chest) and "maen" (stone). ; penguin : Possibly from "pen gwyn", "white head", and originally applied to the Great Auk. A derivation from "pin-wing", in reference to the bird's atrophied wings, is sometimes suggested, but according to the OED this is unsupported. It may also be derived from Breton, which is closely related.; quim : a slang term for vagina, may possibly derive from the Welsh word "cwm" meaning "valley."

Words that derive from Cornish

; bludgeon : from Cornish "blugon", "mallet".; brill : from Cornish "brilli", "mackerel".; dolmen : from French, from Cornish or from Breton "taolvaen", "taol", "table" & "maen", "stone".; vug, vugg, vugh : from Cornish "vooga", "cave".

Words with indirect or possible links

* Coombe, meaning "valley", is usually linked with the Welsh "cwm", also meaning "valley". However, the OED traces both words back to an earlier Celtic word, *"kumbos". It suggests a direct Old English derivation for "coombe".

* Old Welsh origins for the topographical terms Tor (OW "tŵr") and Crag (OW "carreg" or "craig") are among a number of available Celtic derivations for the Old English antecedents to the modern terms. However, the existence of similar cognates in both the Goidelic and the remainder of the Brythonic families makes isolation of a precise origin difficult.

* It has been suggested that crockery might derive from the Welsh "crochan", as well as the Manx "crocan" and Gaelic "crogan", meaning "pot". The OED states that this view is "undetermined". It suggests that the word derives from Old English "croc", via the Icelandic "krukka", meaning "an earthenware pot or pitcher".

* Another word that is commonly thought to derive from Welsh is Dad, meaning "father". It is considered to come from the Welsh "tad", which becomes "dad" under soft mutation. However, according to the OED, this word derives from the infantile forms "dada" and "tata", which occur independently in many languages. It states that the Welsh "tad" "is itself merely a word of the same class". The OED may be incorrect, however, as notwithstanding its alleged occurrence independently it does not seem to occur in Dutch or German both languages closely related to English nor is it found in Anglo-Saxon. A possible support for the OED position occurs in the Jewish-Germanic dialect called Yiddish, which uses "Tate" for father, instead of the German word.

Welsh words used in English

English words lifted direct from Welsh, and used with original spelling -
*awdl
*bach (a term of affection)
*cromlech
*cwm (geology, a corrie)
*cynghanedd (poetic form)
*Eisteddfod
* Urdd Eisteddfod (Properly "Eisteddfod Yr Urdd"), the youth equivalent
*englyn
*gorsedd
*hiraeth
*hwyl
*iechyd da (cheers)

References

* General: Oxford English Dictionary

ee also

*List of English words of Celtic origin