What does the word welsh mean?

Answer 1

Welsh is the English term for the native language of Wales which is also spoken by minorities in other parts of the world. Welsh is also the English name for the people of Wales and basically anything belonging to Wales or it's people. The word has its roots in Germanic "Whal" or "Welsch" which meant many things including foreigner and strange in the derogatory sense and was probably used to denote the native Britons that the Angles, Sachsen and Friesians encountered when they arrived in Britain.

The Welsh language is the modern form of British - from the ancient Brythonic a Celtic language group which includes the virtually extinct Breton (Brittany- France), Cornish (Cornwall- South Western England) and Cymbric (Cumbria- North Western England) and are different from their Goidelic sister languages in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man.

The Welsh people's name for themselves and their country is Cymru, the language is called Cymraeg and the words probably have their roots in a Latin term which implies "brotherhood", probably used by Romano-British people to differentiate themselves in the struggle against the Germanic Friesio-Anglo-Saxon incomers and harking back to more peaceful and "civilised" life ruled by Rome.

An associated derivative word "welch" (as in, welch on a deal) means to renege, swindle or fail to fulfil an obligation. This probably comes from the English impression that the British, who felt little allegiance or affinity to them, were not to be trusted. This has often been attributed to the supposed war-like nature and frequent cross-border raids by the Celtic people of Western Britain against the English but there is little direct evidence that the Welsh were any more prone to this than any other inhabitants of the British isles at that time including the English.

Answer 2

The name Powys is thought to have derived from the Latin 'Pagus' which translates as 'the countryside' and 'Pagenses' meaning 'dwellers in the countryside'. The region was organised into a Roman province with its capital of Viroconium Conoviorum which is modern Wroxeter

Answer 3

To cheat someone by avoiding payment of a gambling debt.