avon
from Welsh
afon; Cornish
avon
barabrith
from
bara brith (speckled bread) a contemptuous term for the English.
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
a traditional Welsh soup/stew; Cornish
kowl
coracle
from
corwgl. But this Welsh term was derived from the Latin
corium meaning "leather or hide", the material from which coracles are made.
corgi
from
cor, "dwarf" +
gi (soft mutation of
ci), "dog".
crag
from an Insular Celtic source, perhaps from Welsh
craig'or 'Carreg.; Cornish
karrek
cromlech
from
crom llech literally "crooked flat stone"
crwth
"a bowed lyre"
cwm
from
cwm "coomb." Cornish;
komm; passed into Old English as 'cumb'
eisteddfod
from Welsh, lit. "session," from eistedd "to sit" (from sedd "seat," cognate with L. sedere; see sedentary) + bod "to be" (cognate with O.E. beon; see be).
flannel
the Oxford English Dictionary 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
hiraeth
homesickness tinged with grief or sadness over the lost or departed. It is a mix of longing, yearning, nostalgia, wistfulness, or an earnest desire.
kistvaen
from
cist (chest) and
maen (stone).
lech
from
llech.
possibly 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, the American Heritage Dictionary, the Century Dictionary and Merriam-Webster, 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.
tref
meaning “hamlet, home, town.”; Cornish
tre.
wrasse
a kind of sea fish (derived via Cornish
wrach, Welsh
gwrach (meaning hag or witch)).
Bal
mine as in Balmaiden or Hemerdon Bal in Devon
brill (possibly)
from Cornish
brilli, "mackerel".
dolmen
from Cornish and/or Breton
taolvaen,
taol, "table" and
maen, "stone".
fogou
from Cornish underground structure souterrain which is found in many Iron Age settlements in Cornwall. The purpose of a fogou is no longer known, and there is little evidence to suggest what it might have been.
Fossicking
a form of prospecting
perhaps Gull
Welsh
gwylan, Cornish
goelann, Breton
gouelan
paw
paw, claw, figuratively hand; padgy-paw dialectal newt or lizard 'four-paw' (Pawen in Welsh)
Porbeagle
a species of fish.
possibly Puffin
a type of bird.
Tiddy oggy; another term for pasties.
vug, vugg, vugh
from Cornish
vooga, "cave".
Wrasse
a type of fish.
Many dialect words in the West-Cornish dialect of English are from the Cornish language itself, however these words are localised to West Cornwall and therefore it would not be accurate to describe them as having passed into English "proper".
All Breton-origin words in English come by way of French.
bijou
from Breton
bizoù ring (
biz means finger)
gull
from
gouelan (
gouelañ means to cry)
Jewell
(surname) from Judicaël (
iud means combatant then lord and
hael means generous or magnanimous)
korrigan
from 'dwarf' (diminutive)
menhir
from Breton
maen stone and
hir "long" / "tall", i.e. a "long stone" (main hir also means long, slender in Welsh)
truant
from Breton
truan (miserable, vagabond, beggar, rogue, villain)
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, Latin, Old French and the other Brythonic families makes isolation of a precise origin difficult, such as for example, the adoption of the word Cross from Latin Crux, Old Irish cros, OE Rood ; appearing in Welsh and Cornish as Croes, Krows.
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
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, *
kumbos. It suggests a direct Old English 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
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
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
from either Welsh or Cornish; Welsh
gwylan, Cornish
guilan, Breton
goelann; all from O.Celt. *voilenno- "gull" (OE
mæw)
Hog
Cornish
Hogh (and hedgehog)
Iron
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
hearn, Cornish
hoern, Breton
houarn, Old Gaelic
íarn (Irish
iaran,
iarun, Scottish
iarunn)
Lawn
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)
Penguin
From
pen gwyn meaning
white-head from either Welsh, Cornish or 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.
Tor
meaning hill or mountain, possibly via Latin
turris (tower) such as Glastonbury Tor, is particularly prevalent in Devon.
English words lifted directly from Welsh, and used with original spelling (largely used either in Wales or with reference to Wales.):
awdl
bach (literally "small", a term of affection)
cromlech
cwm (a valley)
crwth (originally meaning "swelling" or "pregnant")
cwrw - Welsh ale or beer
cwtch (hug, cuddle) (also small cupboard or dog's kennel/bed)
cynghanedd
Eisteddfod
englyn
gorsedd
hiraeth (distant longing, homesickness)
hwyl
iechyd da (cheers, or literally "good health")
mochyn - pig
sglod, sglods (Welsh plural = sglodion) - chips or "French fries", in fish-and-chip takeaways (Flintshire)
twp/dwp - idiotic, daft
Urdd Eisteddfod (in Welsh "Eisteddfod Yr Urdd"), the youth Eisteddfod
ych a fi - an expression of distaste
