2427: Gaul(e) & Gallia Aug 13, 2021
There are many names of places and people around Europe and Anatolia from the name *walhaz [1] such as in Wallonia, Wallachia, Wales and Cornwall, but even a more quintessentially Celtic name: Gaul. Not only is 'gaul' descended from this root meaning , but also the regions of Spain 'Galicia', Ukraine and Poland's 'Galicia', and Turkey's historical region of 'Galatia'. What is more surprising is that the Latin term for the modern France, 'Gallia', is not related to the French 'Gaule' even though this is often how the region is translated. The French word is from *walhaz, but the Latin 'Gallia' actually morphed through the regular sound shifts into the French 'Jaille' which is found in certain place-names across the country.
2317: walnut Apr 21, 2021
Walnuts originate from Persia, but they are named for Wales, sort of. 'Walnut', or 'wealhhnutu' in Old English literally meant 'foreign nut'. This is from the Germanic root *walhaz, whose meaning developed in many ways including 'Roman; Romantic' (hence 'Walloon'), 'Celtic' (hence 'Wales'), or just generally 'foreign'. This is also seen in 'Welsh onions' which are Japanese, and in many other Germanic languages.
2315: Italy, Włochy, and Olaszország—How Are These Related? Apr 19, 2021
Many names for Italy follow a similar format: Italien, Italia etc. Some clear exceptions to this exist however in the Polish Włochy and Hungarian Olaszország. In the case of Polish, this word actually has an old Germanic root, despite Germanic languages by and large not using this anymore for 'Italy' from *walhaz meaning 'Roman; Romance', and having the same root as 'Wales' and 'Wallonia'. Similarly, 'Olaszország' is also ultimately of this same proto-Germanic, and proto-Slavic root, possibly related to the Latin 'Volcae', the name of a Celtic tribe. At any rate, only the first half of this comes from the 'Vlasi' root, and the rest is a suffix, as can be seen in Hungarian's related word 'Oláh' for a Romanian.
2115: Wallonia and the Celts Sep 29, 2020
Wallachia is a historical territory in Romania, a Romance language speaking area, named by the Germans after the Celts. This region, in which resides the modern capital Bucharest, is among other places including Wallonia in Belgium, Wales in the U.K., and the German 'Welschtirol' (Latin Tyrol) which have Germanic exonyms for once (or in the case of Wales, currently) Celtic populations. Most of Europe, from Britain and Spain over to Turkey was dominantly Celtic before the Romans who in extreme cases displaced or genocided them, or otherwise assimilated them to Roman culture; indeed that is why they are now Romanian.
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446: walloon and welsh Feb 27, 2016
The two peoples of Belguim, the Flemish and the Walloons consider themselves ethnically different. 'Walloon' comes from the Old English, 'Welisc, Wælisc', from a Germanic word meaning ‘foreigner’, and you will notice that this is the same etymology as for 'Welsh', and is similar to the Latin word 'Volcae', the name of a Celtic people in southern Gaul.