welk

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wɛlk/
• Rhymes: -ɛlk

Etymology 1

From Middle English welken, probably from a continental Germanic language; compare Middle Dutch welken (Dutch welken) and Middle Low German welken. Cognate with German welken. Ultimately, from Proto-West Germanic *wilkijan (“to become soft”), from Proto-Germanic *welkaz (“soft, withered”), according to Kluge, related to *wulkną (“cloud”).

Compare also Old English wealwian (“to fade, wither”), Old English wlacu (“tepid, lukewarm”).

Verb

welk (third-person singular simple present welks, present participle welking, simple past and past participle welked)

1. (obsolete) Of a plant: to wither, wilt, decay.
2. (obsolete) To diminish; to lose brightness, to wane.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 23, page 9:

     As gentle Shepheard in ſweete euentide, / When ruddy Phebus gins to welke in weſt, [...]

   • 1641 May, John Milton, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England: And the Cavvses that hitherto have Hindred it; republished as Will Taliaferro Hale, editor, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England (Yale Studies in English; LIV), New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1916, →OCLC, 2nd book, page 257:

     [T]he Church that before by inſenſible degrees welk'd and impair'd, now with large ſteps went down hill decaying; [...]

3. (dialectal) to soak, steep.
4. (dialectal) to thrash, beat severely.
5. To contract; to shorten.
   • 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “Nouember. Aegloga Vndecima.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: , London: Hugh Singleton, , →OCLC; reprinted as H Oskar Sommer, editor, The Shepheardes Calender , London: John C. Nimmo, , 1890, →OCLC, folio 44, verso:

     But nowe ſadde Winter welked hath the day, / And Phœbus weary of his yerely taſ-ke: / Yſtabled hath his ſteedes in lowlye laye / And taken vp his ynne in Fiſhes haſ-ke.

6. (transitive) To form into wrinkles or ridges.

Etymology 2

Noun

welk (plural welks)

1. Alternative form of whelk

Anagrams

• kewl, lewk

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch welc, from Old Dutch *wilik, *welik, from Proto-Germanic *hwilīkaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʋɛlk/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: welk
• Rhymes: -ɛlk

Determiner

welk

1. which (what, of those mentioned or implied)

Inflection

Pronoun

welk

1. (relative) which

Declension

Descendants

• Berbice Creole Dutch: weleke
• Negerhollands: welk, welleke, welli
• Skepi Creole Dutch: welk

Anagrams

• kwel

German

Etymology

From Middle High German welc, from Old High German welk; see the verb welken. Cognate with Hunsrik wellich.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈvɛlk/

• Audio

  (file)

Adjective

welk (strong nominative masculine singular welker, comparative welker, superlative am welksten or am welkesten)

1. wilted, faded

Declension

Related terms

• welken
• verwelken

Further reading

• “welk” in Duden online
• “welk” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English weoloc, wiloc, wioloc, weluc, from Proto-West Germanic *weluk.

Alternative forms

• welke, whelke, wilke, woelk, wylk, wylke

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wɛlk/, /wilk/

Noun

welk (plural welkes)

1. whelk (sea snail)
2. (rare) whelk shell

Descendants

• English: whelk, welk, whilk, wilk
• Scots: wulk, wilk, welk
• → Old French: welke

References

• “welk(e, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 2

Verb

welk

1. Alternative form of welken (“to dry out”)