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Origin and history of weal

weal(n.1)

"state of being well or prosperous," Middle English wele, from Old English wela "wealth, worldly riches, gold" (now obsolete), in late Old English also "welfare, well-being; prosperity, good fortune." This is reconstructed to be from West Germanic *welon-, according to Watkins from PIE root *wel- (2) "to wish, will" (see will (v.); it also is related to well (adv.)).

The sense was extended to "welfare of a community, common good" by mid-15c., hence "a state, a community" (1510s; suggested by mid-14c. in commonweal). Hence Shakespeare's weals-man "statesman" ("Coriolanus").

It has been paired alliteratively with woe since Old English, often indicating "all circumstances." The fruit of the forbidden tree in Genesis was sometimes "a fruit ðe kenned wel and wo" (mid-13c.).

weal(n.2)

"raised mark on skin," 1821, alteration of wale (q.v.).

also from 1821

Entries linking to weal

commonweal(n.)

mid-14c., comen wele, "a commonwealth or its people;" mid-15c., comune wele, "the public good, the general welfare of the nation or community;" see common (adj.) + weal (n.1).

wale(n.)

Old English walu "ridge, bank" of earth or stone, from Proto-Germanic *walu- (source also of Low German wale "weal," Old Frisian walu "rod, staff, stick," Old Norse völr "round piece of wood," Gothic walus "a staff, stick," Dutch wortel, German wurzel "root").

According to Watkins, this is from PIE root *wel- (3) "to turn, revolve." The common notion in the senses perhaps is "raised line." But Boutkan (2005) finds this "a far-fetched root etymology" and "formally impossible," suggesting instead a derivation from the PIE root of Latin vallus "stake, pole" (see wall (n.)).

It is by late 14c. as "ridge made on flesh by a lash" (compare weal (n.2)). In reference to ridges in textile fabric formed by threads or groups of threads, by 1580s. Related: Waling.

Wales "horizontal planks which extend along a ship's sides," attested from late 13c., represents a separate use of the Old English word.

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Trends of weal

adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

More to explore

stealth

mid-13c., stelthe, "theft, action or practice of stealing" (a sense now obsolete), from a probable Old English *stælþ, which is related to stelen (see steal (v.)), from Proto-Germanic *stælitho (source also of Old Norse stulþr), with Proto-Germanic abstract noun suffix *-itho (se

republic

citizens entitled to vote," c. 1600, from French république (15c.), from Latin respublica (ablative republica) "the common weal...

common

Common good (late 14c.) translates Latin bonum publicum "the common weal."...

magpie

together most probably for the purpose of choosing mates, are supposed to be conspiring and clubbing their wits, for the weal...

hurt

c. 1200, "to injure, wound" (the body, feelings, reputation, etc.), also "to stumble (into), bump into; charge against, rush, crash into; knock (things) together," from Old French hurter "to ram, strike, collide with" (Modern French heurter), a word of uncertain origin. Perhaps f

Ruth

fem. proper name, biblical ancestor of David, from Hebrew Ruth, probably a contraction of reuth "companion, friend, fellow woman." The Old Testament book tells her story....c. 1200, perhaps late Old English, ruthe, "misery, sorrow, grief;" also "pity, compassion, sorrow for the m

whale

"animals of the mammalian order Cetacea," Old English hwæl "whale," also "walrus," from Proto-Germanic *hwalaz (source also of Old Saxon hwal, Old Norse hvalr, hvalfiskr, Swedish val, Middle Dutch wal, walvisc, Dutch walvis, Old High German wal, German Wal), from PIE *(s)kwal-o-

injury

late 14c., "harm, damage, loss; a specific injury," from Anglo-French injurie "wrongful action" (Old French injure, 13c.), from Latin iniuria "wrong, an injustice, insult, unlawful violence, assault, damage, harm," noun use of fem. of iniurius "wrongful, unjust, unlawful," from i

dismal

c. 1400, "unlucky, inauspicious," in dismal day, earlier as a noun, in the dismal (c. 1300) "in days of misfortune or disaster, under inauspicious circumstances, at an unlucky time," from Anglo-French dismal (mid-13c.), apparently from Old French (li) dis mals "(the) bad days," f

blight

1610s, "influence, usually hidden or inconspicuous, that nips, blasts, or destroys plants," a word of obscure origin; according to OED it emerged into literary speech from the talk of gardeners and farmers. It is perhaps from Old English blæce, blæcðu, a scrofulous skin condition

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