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Wales

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Wales

[weylz]
–noun
a division of the United Kingdom, in SW Great Britain. 2,766,800; 8016 sq. mi. (20,760 sq. km).
Medieval, Cambria.

wale

1[weyl] noun, verb, waled, wal⋅ing.
–noun
1. a streak, stripe, or ridge produced on the skin by the stroke of a rod or whip; welt.
2. the vertical rib in knit goods or a chain of loops running lengthwise in knit fabric (opposed to course ).
3. the texture or weave of a fabric.
4. Nautical.
a. any of certain strakes of thick outside planking on the sides of a wooden ship.
b. gunwale.
5. Also called breast timber, ranger, waling. Engineering, Building Trades. a horizontal timber or other support for reinforcing various upright members, as sheet piling or concrete form boards, or for retaining earth at the edge of an excavation.
6. a ridge on the outside of a horse collar.
–verb (used with object)
7. to mark with wales.
8. to weave with wales.
9. Engineering, Building Trades. to reinforce or fasten with a wale or wales.

Origin:
bef. 1050; (n.) ME; OE walu ridge, rib, wheal; c. ON vǫlr, Goth walus rod, wand; (v.) late ME, deriv. of the n.

wale

2[weyl] noun, verb, waled, wal⋅ing. Scot. and North England
–noun
1. something that is selected as the best; choice.
–verb (used with object)
2. to choose; select.

Origin:
1250–1300; ME wal(e) < ON val choice, velja to choose
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To Wales
wale   (wāl)   
n.  
  1. A mark raised on the skin, as by a whip; a weal or welt.

    1. One of the parallel ribs or ridges in the surface of a fabric such as corduroy.

    2. The texture or weave of such a fabric: a wide wale.

    3. A gunwale.

    4. One of the heavy planks or strakes extending along the sides of a wooden ship.

  2. Nautical

    1. A gunwale.

    2. One of the heavy planks or strakes extending along the sides of a wooden ship.

tr.v.   waled, wal·ing, wales
To raise marks on (the skin), as by whipping.

[Middle English, from Old English, variant of walu; see wel-2 in Indo-European roots.]
Wales   (wālz)   
A principality of the United Kingdom west of England on the island of Great Britain. Incorporated with England since the Act of Union (1536), Wales has maintained its own distinct culture and a strong nationalist sentiment. Cardiff is the capital and the largest city. Population: 2,970,000.
Word History: Although Celtic-speaking peoples were living in Britain before the arrival of the invaders from Friesland and Jutland whose languages would eventually develop into English, it was the Celts and not the invaders who came to be called "strangers" in English. Our words for the descendants of one of the Celtish peoples, Welsh, and for their homeland, Wales, come from the Old English word wealh, meaning "foreigner, stranger, Celt." Its plural wealas is the direct ancestor of Wales, literally "foreigners." The Old English adjective derived from wealh, wælisc or welisc, is the source of our Welsh. The Germanic form for the root from which wealh descended was *walh-, "foreign." We also have attested once in Old English the compound walhhnutu in a document from around 1050; its next recording appears in 1358 as walnottes. This eventually became walnut in Modern English, which is thus literally the "foreign nut." The nut was "foreign" because it was native to Roman Gaul and Italy.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Cultural Dictionary

Wales

One of the four countries that make up the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, occupying the western peninsula of the island of Great Britain. Its capital and largest city is Cardiff.

Note: Welsh culture is known for its writers and singers, dating back more than one thousand years to the bards (poet-singers) of the Middle Ages.
The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

wale 
O.E. walu "ridge," as of earth or stone, later "ridge made on flesh by a lash" (related to weal (2)); from P.Gmc. *walo (cf. Low Ger. wale "weal," O.Fris. walu "rod," O.N. völr "round piece of wood," Goth. walus "a staff, stick," Du. wortel, Ger. wurzel "root"). The common notion perhaps is "raised line." Used in reference to the ridges of textile fabric from 1583. Wales "horizontal planks which extend along a ship's sides" is attested from 1295.

Wales 
see Welsh.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Medical Dictionary

wale (wāl)
n.
A mark raised on the skin, as by a whip; a weal or welt. v. waled, wal·ing, wales
To raise marks on the skin, as by whipping.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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