Chapter 104

GENTILE FORMS.

§ 273. The only word in the present English that requires explanation is the name of the principality _Wales_.

1. The form is _plural_, however much the meaning may be _singular_; so that the -s in _Wale-s_ is the -s in _fathers_, &c.

2. It has grown out of the Anglo-Saxon from _wealhas_ = _foreigners_, from _wealh_ = _a foreigner_, the name by which the Welsh are spoken of by the Germans of England, just as the Italians are called Welsh by the Germans of Germany; and just as _wal-nuts_ = _foreign nuts_, or _nuces Galliæ_. _Welsh_ = _weall-isc_ = _foreign_, and is a derived adjective.

3. The transfer of the name of the _people_ inhabiting a certain country to the _country_ so inhabited, was one of the commonest processes in both Anglo-Saxon and Old English.

* * * * *