wallow

wallow¹ roll about

Etymology

The word for rolling about is inherited from Middle English walwen, also walowen,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English wealwian (“to roll, turn oneself over”), Anglian walwian,^[5][6][7] from Proto-West Germanic *walwōn,^[1][4] a variant of *walwijan, from Proto-Germanic *walwijaną (“to roll”).^[1] The OED sets beside it a parallel Germanic verb, found in Gothic 𐌰𐍆𐍅𐌰𐌻𐍅𐌾𐌰𐌽 (afwalwjan, “to roll away”) and in Old English wielwan (“to roll (something)”), and compares 𐍅𐌰𐌻𐍅𐌹𐍃𐍉𐌽 (walwisōn, “to wallow”).^[8][9][10] Orel derives the Germanic verb from Proto-Germanic *waluz (“staff, round stick”).^[9] The Germanic stem continues Proto-Indo-European *welw-, an extended form of the root *wel- (“to turn, roll”),^{[8][11][1][12]} which is also the source of Latin volvō (“to roll”) and of Ancient Greek ἐλυσθείς (elustheís, “rolled up”) and ἔλυτρον (élutron, “wrapper, case”).^[8][5][13] From the same root come English voluble, volute, volume, involve, vault and helix,^[11][13][3] and its Germanic descendant also gave waltz and welter.^[11][13] The noun is formed from the verb.^[8][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a round object, to roll along the ground: before 899, in Alfred's translation of Boethius, where the felloes of a wheel wealowigen on ðære eorþan, roll on the earth.^[8][7][6] Of a person or animal rolling about while lying down, it is recorded in the Old English Bede, and of rolling in water or mud in Alfred's Pastoral Care, which has wealwode on ðæm gedrófum wætere, wallowed in the muddy water.^[8][6] The Middle English form is first found probably before 1200, in the Trinity Homilies.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The Old English sense "to roll", of a stone or wheel, died out by 1387.^[8] What survived was the rolling of a body in a soft or dirty medium, mud, blood or dust, often with a hint of sensual pleasure.^[8] Chaucer used it in the Reeve's Tale of men wrestling on the floor, who "walwen as doon two pigges in a poke".^[8][2] The figurative sense, to remain plunged in sensual or degraded living, is recorded from about 1230, in Hali Meidenhad,^[8][5][4] and "to roll in" wealth or possessions from before 1400, in the Cursor Mundi.^[8] Ships wallowed in the waves from about 1300, and the sea, wind or smoke rolled and surged from 1362, in Piers Plowman.^[8] The sense "to move heavily or clumsily", recorded from about 1570, is illustrated by Milton's sea creatures "wallowing unwieldy" in Johnson's dictionary (1755), which also gives "to live in any state of filth or gross vice".^[8][14] The jocular sense "to revel in", without moral blame, is first found in Twain's Tom Sawyer (1876), and the modern phrase wallow in self-pity belongs to it.^[8][15] The noun, the act of wallowing or the filth in which swine wallow, is recorded before 1591,^[8][7][4] although Merriam-Webster dates it to the 15th century;^[16] a buffalo's mud-hole was a wallow from 1841, in Catlin's letters on the North American Indians,^[8][4] and Dryden used the noun for a rolling gait (1676).^[8][14] In Yorkshire dialect to be wallowing in wealth was to be very rich, and in Scotland to wallow was also to walk in a lumbering way.^[17]

Timeline

• before 899 – of a wheel or stone, to roll along the ground (obsolete by 1387).^[8][7]
• Old English – to roll about in water, mud or the like.^[8][6]
• c. 1230 – to remain plunged in sensual or degraded living.^[8]
• c. 1300 – of a ship, to roll in the waves.^[8]
• 1362 – of the sea or smoke, to roll, surge.^[8]
• before 1400 – to abound or roll in wealth.^[8]
• c. 1570 – to move heavily or clumsily.^[8]
• before 1591 – noun, the act of wallowing.^[8][7]
• 1676 – noun, a rolling walk (obsolete).^[8]
• 1841 – noun, a mud-hole made by wallowing animals.^[8][4]
• 1876 – to give oneself up to enjoyment; to revel.^[8]
• 1934 – noun, figurative, a state of depression or stagnation.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. Of an animal or person, to roll about lazily or clumsily in mud, water, dust or the like: The buffalo wallowed in the shallow pond.^{[18][16][3][15]}
2. To take unrestrained pleasure in something; to revel or luxuriate; especially to give way to a feeling: He spent the weekend wallowing in self-pity.^{[18][16][15][8]}
3. To be plentifully supplied with something, especially money.^[18][16]
4. To move with difficulty, in a heavy or rolling way; to flounder; of a ship, to pitch and roll in rough water.^{[18][3][15][8]}
5. To remain helpless or sunk in a state: They were left to wallow in their ignorance.^[16][8]
6. Of smoke or waves, to billow or surge.^[18][16][15]

Noun

1. An act or instance of wallowing.^[18][16][15]
2. A muddy or dusty place used by animals for wallowing, or the hollow formed by them.^{[18][16][15][8]}
3. A state of degradation or depression.^[18][16][8]
4. (obsolete) A rolling walk.^[8][14]

Word family

• wallower

wallow² wither, fade

Etymology

The word for withering is inherited from Middle English welwen, also weolewen,^[2][3] inherited from Old English wealwian (“to fade, wither”).^[8][2][6][3] The OED traces it to a Germanic root also behind the Old English adjective wealg (“insipid”), takes some Middle English forms as perhaps another ablaut grade, and compares welk.^[8] Merriam-Webster sets beside it Middle Low German welen (“to wither”) and Middle Dutch welken.^[3] Wiktionary calls the origin uncertain, and suggests an alteration of fealwian (“to turn pale, wither”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

To wither or fade: in Old English, in King Alfred's translation of Boethius, of plants that grow quickly and latost wealowigan, wither most slowly.^[8][6]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English welwen meant to waste away or lose strength as well as to dry up or shrivel; the Wycliffite Bible used it before 1382.^[2] By the modern period the word was dialectal: Ramsay wrote of a "wailowit cheek" in 1724, and the English Dialect Dictionary records it in Scotland, Northumberland, Derbyshire and Somerset, in Forfarshire also of a stream that dwindles.^[17] Bosworth–Toller cites Halliwell for it as a Somerset word.^[6]

Timeline

• Old English – to wither, fade.^[8][6]
• c. 1225 – weolewen, to waste away, in the life of St Juliana.^[2]
• 1724 – wailowit, withered, in Ramsay.^[17]

Meanings

Verb

1. (Scotland and dialect) To fade or wither; to waste away.^[3][19][17]