This is a list of

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...

words of

Welsh language Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic language of the Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut Province, Argentina). Historically, it has ...

origin. As with the Goidelic languages, the Brythonic tongues are close enough for possible derivations from

Cumbric Cumbric was a variety of the Common Brittonic language spoken during the Early Middle Ages in the ''Hen Ogledd'' or "Old North" in what is now the counties of Westmorland, Cumberland and northern Lancashire in Northern England and the souther ...

, Cornish or Breton in some cases. Beyond the acquisition of common nouns, there are numerous English toponyms, surnames, personal names or nicknames derived from Welsh (see

Celtic toponymy Celtic toponymy is the study of place names wholly or partially of Celtic origin. These names are found throughout continental Europe, Britain, Ireland, Anatolia and, latterly, through various other parts of the globe not originally occupied by ...

Celtic onomastics Onomastics is an important source of information on the early Celts, as Greco-Roman historiography recorded Celtic names before substantial written information becomes available in any Celtic language. Like Germanic names, early Celtic names are ...

List

As main word choice for meaning

;

bara brith Bara brith is a traditional Welsh tea bread flavoured with tea, dried fruits and spices. A decrease in its popularity led to supermarket Morrisons removing it from their shelves in 2006, and a year later a survey showed that 36% of teenagers in ...

: ''speckled bread''. Traditional Welsh bread flavoured with tea, dried fruits and mixed spices. ; bard : from Old Celtic ''bardos'', either through Welsh ''bardd'' (where the bard was highly respected) or Scottish ''bardis'' (where it was a term of contempt); Cornish ''bardh'' ;

cawl Cawl () is a Welsh dish. In modern Welsh the word is used for any soup or broth; in English it refers to a traditional Welsh soup, usually called ''cawl Cymreig'' (literally 'Welsh soup') in Welsh. Historically, ingredients tended to vary, but t ...

: a traditional Welsh soup/stew; Cornish ''kowl'' ;

coracle A coracle is a small, rounded, lightweight boat of the sort traditionally used in Wales, and also in parts of the West Country and in Ireland, particularly the River Boyne, and in Scotland, particularly the River Spey. The word is also used of ...

: from ''corwgl''. This Welsh term was derived from the Latin ''corium'' meaning "leather or hide", the material from which coracles are made. ;

corgi The Welsh Corgi ( or Corgi, plural Corgis, or occasionally the etymologically consistent Corgwn; ) is a small type of herding dog that originated in Wales. The name ''corgi'' is derived from the Welsh words and (which is mutated to ), mean ...

: from ''cor'', "dwarf" + ''gi'' (

soft mutation In linguistics, lenition is a sound change that alters consonants, making them more sonority hierarchy, sonorous. The word ''lenition'' itself means "softening" or "weakening" (from Latin 'weak'). Lenition can happen both synchronic analysis, s ...

of ''ci''), "dog". ; cwm : (very specific geographic sense today) or coomb (dated). Cornish; ''komm''; passed into Old English where sometimes written 'cumb' ;

flannel Flannel is a soft woven fabric, of various fineness. Flannel was originally made from carded wool or worsted yarn, but is now often made from either wool, cotton, or synthetic fiber. Flannel is commonly used to make tartan clothing, blankets, ...

: the

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a co ...

says the etymology is "uncertain", but Welsh ''gwlanen'' = "flannel wool" is likely. An alternative source is Old French ''flaine'', "blanket". The word has been adopted in most European languages. An earlier English form was ''flannen'', which supports the Welsh etymology. Shakspeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor contains the term "the Welsh flannel"... ; flummery : from ''llymru'' ; pikelet : a type of small, thick pancake. Derived from the Welsh ''bara pyglyd'', meaning "pitchy .e. dark or stickybread", later shortened simply to ''pyglyd'';Edwards, W. P. ''The Science of Bakery Products'', Royal Society of Chemistry, 2007, p. 198Luard, E. ''European Peasant Cookery'', Grub Street, 2004, p. 449 The early 17th century lexicographer,

Randle Cotgrave Randle Cotgrave was an English lexicographer. In 1611 he compiled and published ''A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues'', a bilingual dictionary that represented a breakthrough at the time and remains historically important. Life and w ...

, spoke of "our Welsh barrapycleds".''The folk-speech of south Cheshire'', English Dialect Society, 1887, p. 293''

Notes & Queries Notes & Queries is a weekly column in ''The Guardian'' newspaper which publishes readers' questions together with (often humorous) answers submitted by other readers. The column first appeared on 13 November 1989, and was the idea of leader wr ...

'', 3rd. ser. VII (1865), 170 The word spread initially to the West Midlands of England,Wilson, C. A. ''Food & drink in Britain'', Barnes and Noble, 1974, p. 266 where it was anglicised to ''picklets'' and then to ''pikelets''. The first recognisable crumpet-type recipe was for ''picklets'', published in 1769 by

Elizabeth Raffald Elizabeth Raffald (; 1733 – 19 April 1781) was an English author, innovator and entrepreneur. Born and raised in Doncaster, Yorkshire, Raffald went into domestic service for fifteen years, ending as the housekeeper to the Warburton baron ...

in ''

The Experienced English Housekeeper ''The Experienced English Housekeeper'' is a cookery book by the English businesswoman Elizabeth Raffald (1733–1781). It was first published in 1769, and went through 13 authorised editions and at least 23 pirated ones. The book contains s ...

''.Davidson, A. ''The Penguin Companion to Food'', 2002, p. 277 ;

wrasse The wrasses are a family, Labridae, of marine fish, many of which are brightly colored. The family is large and diverse, with over 600 species in 81 genera, which are divided into 9 subgroups or tribes. They are typically small, most of them le ...

: a kind of sea fish (derived via Cornish ''wrach'', Welsh ''gwrach'' (meaning hag or witch)).

Esoteric or specialist

;

cist A cist ( or ; also kist ; from grc-gre, κίστη, Middle Welsh ''Kist'' or Germanic ''Kiste'') is a small stone-built coffin-like box or ossuary used to hold the bodies of the dead. Examples can be found across Europe and in the Middle Ea ...

: (archaeological) a stone-lined coffin ;

cromlech A cromlech (sometimes also spelled "cromleh" or "cromlêh"; cf Welsh ''crom'', "bent"; ''llech'', "slate") is a megalithic construction made of large stone blocks. The word applies to two different megalithic forms in English, the first being an ...

: from ''crom llech'' literally "crooked flat stone" ;

crwth The crwth (, also called a crowd or rote or crotta) is a bowed lyre, a type of stringed instrument, associated particularly with Welsh music, now archaic but once widely played in Europe. Four historical examples have survived and are to be fo ...

: "a bowed lyre" ;

kistvaen A kistvaen or cistvaen is a tomb or burial chamber formed from flat stone slabs in a box-like shape. If set completely underground, it may be covered by a ''tumulus''. The word is derived from the Welsh Language, Welsh ''cist'' (chest) and '' ...

: from ''

'' (chest) and ''maen'' (stone). ;

lech Lech may refer to: People * Lech (name), a name of Polish origin * Lech, the legendary founder of Poland * Lech (Bohemian prince) Products and organizations * Lech (beer), Polish beer produced by Kompania Piwowarska, in Poznań * Lech Poznań, ...

/lɛk/ : capstone of a cromlech, see above ; tref : meaning “hamlet, home, town.”; Cornish ''tre''.

Words with indirect or possible links

Similar cognates across Goidelic (gaelic),

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intellig ...

and the other

Brittonic Brittonic or Brythonic may refer to: *Common Brittonic, or Brythonic, the Celtic language anciently spoken in Great Britain *Brittonic languages, a branch of the Celtic languages descended from Common Brittonic *Britons (Celtic people) The Br ...

families makes isolating a precise origin hard. This applies to ''cross'' from Latin ''crux'', Old Irish ''cros'' overtaking Old English ''rood'' ; appearing in Welsh and Cornish as ''Croes'', ''Krows''. It complicates Old Welsh attributions for, in popular and technical topography, Tor (OW ''tŵr'') and crag (Old Welsh ''carreg'' or ''craig'') with competing Celtic derivations, direct and indirect, for the Old English antecedents. ; adder: The Proto-Indo-European root ''netr-'' led to Latin ''natrix'', Welsh ''neidr'', Cornish ''nader'', Breton ''naer'', West Germanic ''nædro'', Old Norse ''naðra'', Middle Dutch ''nadre'', any of which may have led to the English word. ; bow: May be from Old English ''bugan'' "to bend, to bow down, to bend the body in condescension," also "to turn back", or more simply from the Welsh word ''bwa''. A reason for the word Bow originating from Welsh, is due to Welsh Bowmen playing a major role in the Hundred Years War, such as the

Battle of Crécy The Battle of Crécy took place on 26 August 1346 in northern France between a French army commanded by King PhilipVI and an English army led by King EdwardIII. The French attacked the English while they were traversing northern France du ...

, Battle of Agincourt and the

Battle of Patay The Battle of Patay, fought on 18 June 1429 during the Hundred Years' War, was the culmination of the Loire Campaign between the French and English in north-central France. In this engagement, the horsemen of the French vanguard inflicted heavy ...

, and the bows were often created in Wales. ; coombe: meaning "valley", is usually linked with the Welsh ''cwm'', also meaning "valley", Cornish and Breton ''komm''. However, the OED traces both words back to an earlier Celtic word, *'. It suggests a direct

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

derivation for "coombe". ::(Coumba, or coumbo, is the common western-alpine vernacular word for "glen", and considered genuine gaulish (celtic-ligurian branch). Found in many toponyms of the western Alps like Coumboscuro (Grana valley), Bellecombe and Coumbafréide (Aoste), Combette (Suse), Coumbal dou Moulin (Valdensian valleys). Although seldom used, the word "combe" is included into major standard-french dictionaries. This could justify the celtic origin thesis). ;

crockery Tableware is any dish or dishware used for setting a table, serving food, and dining. It includes cutlery, glassware, serving dishes, and other items for practical as well as decorative purposes. The quality, nature, variety and number of obj ...

: 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". ;

crumpet A crumpet () is a small griddle bread made from an unsweetened batter of water or milk, flour, and yeast, popular in the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and Australia. Crumpets are regionally known as pikelets, a name also ap ...

: Welsh ''crempog, cramwyth'', Cornish ''krampoeth'' or Breton ''Krampouezh''; 'little hearth cakes' ; druid: From the Old Celtic ''derwijes''/''derwos'' ("true knowledge" or literally "they who know the oak") from which the modern Welsh word ''derwydd'' evolved, but travelled to English through Latin (''druidae'') and French (''druide'') ;

gull Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari. They are most closely related to the terns and skimmers and only distantly related to auks, and even more distantly to waders. Until the 21st century ...

: from either Welsh or Cornish; Welsh ''gwylan'', Cornish ''guilan'', Breton ''goelann''; all from O.Celt. *- "gull" (OE ''mæw'') ;

iron Iron () is a chemical element with Symbol (chemistry), symbol Fe (from la, Wikt:ferrum, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 element, group 8 of the periodic table. It is, Abundanc ...

: or at least the modern form of the word "iron" (c/f Old English ''ísern'', proto-Germanic ''*isarno'', itself borrowed from proto-Celtic), appears to have been influenced by pre-existing Celtic forms in the British Isles: Old Welsh ''haearn'', Cornish ''hoern'', Breton ''houarn'', Old Gaelic ''íarn'' (Irish ', ''iarun'', Scottish ''iarunn'') ;

lawn A lawn is an area of soil-covered land planted with grasses and other durable plants such as clover which are maintained at a short height with a lawnmower (or sometimes grazing animals) and used for aesthetic and recreational purposes. ...

: from Welsh ''Llan'' Cornish ''Lan'' (cf. Launceston, Breton ''Lann''); Heath; enclosed area of land, grass about a Christian site of worship from Cornish Lan (e.g. Lanteglos, occasionally Laun as in Launceston) or Welsh Llan (e.g.

Llandewi The Gower Peninsula ( cy, Gŵyr) in the City and County of Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It contains over twenty villages and communities. Villages Bishopston Bishopston (, or historically ''Llanme ...

) ; penguin: possibly from ''pen gwyn'', "white head". "The fact that the penguin has a black head is no serious objection." It may also be derived from the Breton language, or the Cornish Language, which are all closely related. However, dictionaries suggest the derivation is from Welsh ''pen'' "head" and ''gwyn'' "white", including the

,Oxford English Dictionary
Accessed 2007-03-21 the

American Heritage Dictionary American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

,American Heritage Dictionary at wordnik.com
Accessed 2010-01-25 the

Century Dictionary ''The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia'' is one of the largest encyclopedic dictionaries of the English language. In its day it was compared favorably with the ''Oxford English Dictionary,'' and frequently consulted for more factual informati ...

Century Dictionary at wordnik.com
Accessed 2010-01-25 and Merriam-Webster,Merriam-Webster
Accessed 2010-01-25 on the basis that the name was originally applied to the great auk, which had white spots in front of its eyes (although its head was black). ''Pen gwyn'' is identical in Cornish and in Breton. An alternative etymology links the word to Latin ''pinguis'', which means "fat". In Dutch, the alternative word for penguin is "fat-goose" (vetgans see: Dutch wiki or dictionaries under Pinguïn), and would indicate this bird received its name from its appearance. ;Mither :An English word possibly from the Welsh word "moedro" meaning to bother or pester someone. Possible links to the Yorkshire variant "moither"

In Welsh English

These are the words widely used by

Welsh English Welsh English ( cy, Saesneg Gymreig) comprises the dialects of English spoken by Welsh people. The dialects are significantly influenced by Welsh grammar and often include words derived from Welsh. In addition to the distinctive words and gr ...

speakers, with little or no Welsh, and are used with original spelling (largely used in Wales but less often by others when referring to Wales): ; afon : river ;

awdl In Welsh poetry, an ''awdl'' () is a long poem in strict metre (i.e. ''cynghanedd''). Originally, an ''awdl'' could be a relatively short poem unified by its use of a single end-rhyme (the word is related to ''odl'', "rhyme"), using cynghanedd; ...

: ode ;bach : literally "small", a term of affection ;

: defined at esoteric/specialist terms section above ; cwm : a valley ;

: originally meaning "swelling" or "pregnant" ;cwrw : Welsh ale or beer ;cwtch : hug, cuddle, small cupboard, dog's kennel/bed ;

cynghanedd In Welsh-language poetry, ''cynghanedd'' (, literally " harmony") is the basic concept of sound-arrangement within one line, using stress, alliteration and rhyme. The various forms of ''cynghanedd'' show up in the definitions of all formal Welsh ...

;

eisteddfod In Welsh culture, an ''eisteddfod'' is an institution and festival with several ranked competitions, including in poetry and music. The term ''eisteddfod'', which is formed from the Welsh morphemes: , meaning 'sit', and , meaning 'be', means, ac ...

: broad cultural festival, "session/sitting" from eistedd "to sit" (from sedd "seat," cognate with L. sedere; see sedentary) + bod "to be" (cognate with O.E. beon; see be). ;;Urdd Eisteddfod (in Welsh "Eisteddfod Yr Urdd"), the youth Eisteddfod ;

englyn (; plural ) is a traditional Welsh and Cornish short poem form. It uses quantitative metres, involving the counting of syllables, and rigid patterns of rhyme and half rhyme. Each line contains a repeating pattern of consonants and accent ...

; gorsedd ;

hiraeth () is a Welsh word that has no direct English translation. The University of Wales, Lampeter, likens it to a homesickness tinged with grief and sadness over the lost or departed, especially in the context of Wales and Welsh culture. It is a mix ...

: homesickness tinged with grief or sadness over the lost or departed. It is a mix of longing, yearning, nostalgia, wistfulness, or an earnest desire. ;hwyl ;iechyd da : cheers, or literally "good health" ;mochyn : pig ;nant : stream ; : latter contrasts to Welsh plural which is sglodion. Chips (England); fries (universally); french-fried potatoes such as from takeaways (used in Flintshire) ;twp/dwp : idiotic, daft ;ych â fi : an expression of disgust

References

Sources

* ''

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:List Of English Words Of Welsh Origin Welsh language Welsh

Words A word is a basic element of language that carries an objective or practical meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no conse ...

Welsh English