walk

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /wɔːk/, US /wɑːk/, /wɔːk/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English walken, also walkien,^[2][3] a merger of two Old English verbs, wealcan (“to toss, roll; to wander”) and wealcian (“to roll up, curl, muffle up”),^[2][3][4] both from Proto-Germanic *welk-,^[2] the source also of Old Norse valka (“to drag about”) and Middle Dutch walken (“to knead, press, full cloth”).^[2][3][5] It is perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wel- (“to turn, revolve”),^[2][6] but the SOED calls the Germanic base of unknown origin.^[7] The noun is from the verb.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

“To travel on foot, move about”: probably before 1200^[3] or about 1200.^[2] Word Origins notes that the Old English verb meant “to roll, toss” and “to wander”, and did not mean “walk” until the 13th century.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The abrupt change in meaning may be from a colloquial Old English use that surfaced in writing in Middle English,^[3] or from the sense “to be in motion”,^[2] or from fulling cloth by treading on it, as the cognates and the Old English word walker “fuller”, about 1050, suggest.^[3][2] By about 1300 walk meant “to behave, live in a certain manner”, often in a religious sense, translating Latin ambulāre,^[2] and by the early 14th century it was used of a ghost or the dead moving about on earth.^[2] Walking for recreation or exercise is from the mid-14th century.^[2] The noun, an act of walking, is from the mid-13th century, a path or walkway from the late 14th century,^[2] and a manner of walking from the 1650s.^[2] “Way of living” is from the 1580s, hence walk of life in 1733.^[2] Cock of the walk comes from the walk as the place where a game-cock was kept, from the 1610s.^[2] In baseball a walk is a base on balls, from 1905,^[9][2] and a sponsored walk for charity is by 1971.^[2][9]

Timeline

• before 1200 – to travel on foot.^[3]
• mid-13th century – noun, an act of walking.^[2]
• c. 1300 – to live in a certain manner.^[2]
• early 14th century – of a ghost.^[2]
• mid-14th century – walking for pleasure.^[2]
• late 14th century – a path.^[2]
• 1610s – a game-cock's walk.^[2]
• 1733 – walk of life.^[2]
• 1905 – a base on balls.^[9][2]
• 1971 – a sponsored walk.^[2][9]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To move on foot at a pace slower than a run, lifting each foot in turn.
2. To go on foot for pleasure or exercise.
3. To pass over or through on foot.
4. To accompany on foot; to cause an animal to walk.
5. To conduct oneself or live in a certain way.
6. (baseball) To give a base on balls to.

Noun

1. An act of walking; a short journey on foot for pleasure.
2. A manner of walking; a gait.
3. A path or promenade for walking.
4. A way of life or sphere of activity: all walks of life.
5. (baseball) A base on balls.

Word family

• walkability
• walkable
• walkathon
• walker
• walkie-talkie
• walkover
• walk-through

Related words

• walkabout
• walkway
• waulk

Usage notes

A second verb walk, “to full cloth”, from Middle Dutch walken, is now dialect and historical,^[7][4] and survives in the Scots form waulk.^[7] The OED also records an obsolete noun walk, “a cloud”, from 1513.^[9] In Australian English a walkabout is a journey into the bush made by an Aboriginal person to renew contact with tradition.^[8]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press