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Welsh

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welsh

  [welsh, welch]
Use Welsh in a Sentence
–verb (used without object) Informal: Sometimes Offensive.
1. to cheat by failing to pay a gambling debt: You aren't going to welsh on me, are you?
2. to go back on one's word: He welshed on his promise to help in the campaign.
Also, welch.

Origin:
1855–60; perh. special use of Welsh

Related forms:
welsher, noun
Ancestral Tours to Wales
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Welsh

  [welsh, welch]
–adjective
1. of or pertaining to Wales, its people, or their language.
–noun
2. the inhabitants of Wales and their descendants elsewhere.
3. Also called Cymric, Kymric. the Celtic language of Wales.
4. one of a white, lop-eared breed of swine of Welsh origin that produces a large amount of lean meat.
Also, Welch.

Origin:
bef. 900; ME Welische, OE Welisc, deriv. of Walh Briton, foreigner (cf. L Volcae a Gallic tribe); c. G welsch foreign, Italian
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To Welsh
welsh   (wělsh, wělch)   
intr.v.   welshed also welched, welsh·ing also welch·ing, welsh·es also welch·es Informal

  1. To swindle a person by not paying a debt or wager.

  2. To fail to fulfill an obligation.


[Origin unknown.]
welsh'er n.
Welsh   (wělsh, wělch)   
adj.  Of or relating to Wales or its people, language, or culture.
n.  

  1. The people of Wales.

  2. The Celtic language of Wales. Also called Cymric.


[Middle English Walische, from Old English Wælisc, from Wealh, foreigner, Welshman, Celt, perhaps of Celtic origin.]
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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Word Origin & History

Welsh 
O.E. Wilisc, Wylisc (W.Saxon), Welisc, Wælisc (Anglian and Kentish), 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 to speakers of Latin, hence O.H.G. Walh, Walah "Celt, Roman, Gaulish," and O.N. Valir "Gauls, Frenchmen" (Dan. vælsk "Italian, French, southern"); from P.Gmc. *Walkhiskaz, from a Celtic name represented by L. Volcæ (Caesar) "ancient Celtic tribe in southern Gaul." The word survives in Wales, Cornwall, Walloon, walnut, and in surnames Walsh and Wallace. Borrowed in O.C.S. as vlachu, and applied to Romanians, hence Walachia. Among the English, Welsh was used disparagingly of inferior or substitute things, hence Welsh rabbit (1725), also perverted by folk-etymology as Welsh rarebit (1785).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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