Gaul

Etymology

The name of the inhabitant is borrowed from Latin Gallus (“Gaulish; a Gaulish person”), first in Middle English as the plural Galles,^[2][3] and the Latin word is probably of Celtic origin.^[2][3][4] Its spelling was later remodelled after the place name, which the OED, in its revision of 2022, regards as etymologically unrelated:^[2] that name is from French Gaule, recorded from the 12th century and traced by the OED to the Germanic base of Welsh.^[2] Wiktionary gives the chain as Old French Gaule, also Waulle, used to translate the unrelated Latin Gallia, from Frankish *Walha, from Proto-West Germanic *walh (“foreigner, Roman, Celt”), from Proto-Germanic *walhaz (“foreigner, outlander, Celt”), itself probably of Celtic origin.^[1] Etymonline, Merriam-Webster Unabridged, Klein and Weekley make no such division: they derive the English word from the place name, and the place name, through French, from Latin Gallia,^[5][6][7][8] which Etymonline and Klein trace to Gallus.^[5][7] The OED agrees only that the Latin place name is formed from Gallus or its probable Gaulish source with the suffix -ia.^[2] Old English already called the people Galli or, more often, Gallie, the first apparently borrowed independently, and used the place name Gallia.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

An inhabitant of ancient Gaul: before 1387, as the plural Galles, in Trevisa's translation of Higden's Polychronicon.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1560s,^[5] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged to 1625.^[6] The place name is recorded in English from at least the mid-15th century, first as Gaule, apparently taken from French.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The place name was extended to France in later periods,^[2] and the inhabitant's name followed in 1630, when it was used of a French person, in Taylor's Workes.^[2] The Shorter Oxford labels this use poetic and jocular,^[3] and the OED says it is frequently humorous.^[2] From 1601 to 1606 the word was also an adjective, as in Holland's translation of Pliny;^[2] Gaulish is recorded from the 1650s.^[5][6] Gauloise, the brand of French cigarettes, dates from 1910.^[5]

Timeline

• before 1387 – an inhabitant of ancient Gaul, as the plural Galles.^[2] Etymonline dates the sense to the 1560s.^[5]
• mid-15th century – the place name, first as Gaule.^[2]
• 1601 – adjective, of Gaul (obsolete by 1606).^[2]
• 1630 – a French person, frequently humorous.^[2]

Meanings

Proper noun

1. An ancient region of western Europe, centred on what is now France and Belgium, with parts of Germany and the Netherlands and at one time northern Italy.^[9][6][3] It was divided into Cisalpine Gaul, a Roman province before 100 BC, and Transalpine Gaul, conquered by Julius Caesar in 58–51 BC.^[9]

Noun

1. A member of the Celtic-speaking people of this region, who also lived in parts of the Balkans and Asia Minor; any inhabitant of ancient Gaul.^[6][2][9]
2. (often humorous) A French person.^[2][3][9]

Word family

• Gaulish

Related words

• Gallic
• Gallo-
• Gallican
• Welsh
• Walloon

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins