welt

welt¹ to roll, topple

Etymology

The word for rolling or toppling over is inherited from Middle English welten.^[2][3][4] The OED, the Shorter Oxford and Merriam-Webster Unabridged take it as borrowed from Old Norse velta (“to roll, turn over”),^[3][5][6][7] a verb that survives in Icelandic velta, Swedish välta and Danish vælte.^[3] The Middle English Dictionary and Etymonline instead derive it from Old English wyltan (“to overthrow, throw down, turn, revolve”), comparing the Old Norse verb.^[2][8][4] The OED notes that the Old Norse causative verb corresponds to this Old English one, to Old High German walzen (whence German wälzen (“to roll”)) and to Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌻𐍄𐌾𐌰𐌽 (waltjan);^[3][8] Etymonline traces them to Proto-Germanic *waltijaną, and Watkins's reconstruction takes this further to Proto-Indo-European *wel- (“to turn, revolve”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

To roll or turn over, to fall over: before 1400, in the legend of Saint Christopher.^[3] The Middle English Dictionary dates that manuscript to about 1440, and has the verb in Patience, copied about 1400 and composed perhaps about 1380.^[2] Etymonline dates welten to about 1300,^[8] Barnhart to probably before 1400.^[7]

Semantic evolution

In late Middle English alliterative poetry the verb was used both intransitively, of people and things falling or toppling over, and transitively, of overturning walls or throwing a body to the ground;^[2][3] in the Morte Arthure a warrior "welte down" walls.^[2] It could also mean to gush out, and figuratively to turn something over in the mind.^[3][2] The verb fell out of standard English: the Shorter Oxford marks it obsolete except in dialect,^[5] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged labels it chiefly dialectal.^[6] Wright recorded it at the end of the 19th century in northern England, from Cumberland to Lincolnshire, for to totter, to lean or roll to one side, as a cask welts over.^[9] It is a close relative of welter.^[8][6]

Timeline

• before 1400 – intransitive, to roll or turn over, to fall over, to sway.^[3]
• before 1400 – transitive, to throw down, overturn, roll.^[3][2]
• 1400–50 – to gush out.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (dialect) To roll or turn over; to topple or totter.^[6][5][3][9]
2. (dialect) To throw down or overturn something.^[6][5][3]

welt² strip, ridge on the skin

Etymology

The word for the strip of leather in a shoe is inherited from Middle English welte, also walte,^[6][10][11] of unknown origin.^{[3][12][13][14]} The OED suggests that the variation in its vowel points to an unrecorded Old English *wealt, with an Anglian variant *walt,^[3] and the Shorter Oxford likewise allows an Old English origin.^[5] Barnhart, Etymonline and Merriam-Webster Unabridged consider that it may be related to the Middle English verb welten, to overturn or roll over,^[7][8][6] and Klein derives it from that verb.^[15] Weekley compared wale and weal, which he thought perhaps related.^[11] The verb, first recorded in 1483, is formed from the noun.^[3][2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In shoemaking, a strip of leather sewn between the sole and the turned-in edge of the upper: about 1425, though the OED's first quotation is from the late 15th century.^[3][7] Etymonline dates it to the early 15th century.^[8] The verb, to furnish shoes with welts, follows in the Catholicon Anglicum (1483).^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

From the shoemaker's strip the word spread in the 16th century to any narrow strip sewn on the edge of a garment as a border, hem or trimming (1506),^[3][8] and Johnson (1755) defined it as "a border; a guard; an edging".^[16] The phrase without welt or guard, without any trimming, was current from 1592 to 1679.^[3] Because such a border forms a rounded ridge, the word came to mean any narrow ridge or raised stripe (1599); a ridge on the skin left by a wound or blow is recorded from 1800.^[3][8][7] The verb followed the same path: from welting shoes and garments it came by 1823, in Moor's Suffolk Words, to mean to beat or thrash, as with a blow that raises welts.^[3][8][7] In 19th-century dialect a welt was also the ribbed top of a stocking, a clumsy seam and a weal from a blow, and Wright found these uses across Scotland, Ireland and England.^[9] Technical uses grew in saddle-making (1871), glove-making (1883) and plumbing, where to welt is to join pipes by folding their edges over each other (1888).^[3][6]

Timeline

• c. 1425 – in shoemaking, a strip of leather between the sole and the upper.^[3][7]
• 1483 – verb, to furnish shoes with welts.^[3][7]
• 1506 – a strip of material on the edge of a garment, as a border or hem.^[3]
• 1592 – without welt or guard, without trimming (obsolete by 1679).^[3]
• 1599 – a narrow ridge or raised stripe.^[3]
• 1800 – a ridge on the skin, especially from a wound or blow.^[3][7][8]
• 1823 – verb, to beat or thrash.^[3][7][8]
• 1888 – in plumbing, to join the edges of pipes by folding them over each other.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A strip of leather sewn between the sole and the upper of a shoe, through which they are stitched together.^{[6][17][12][3]}
2. A strip, tape or cord sewn into a seam or on an edge to reinforce or trim it; the ribbed or doubled edge of a knitted garment.^[17][12][6]
3. A raised ridge on the skin made by a lash or blow, or by an allergic reaction; a weal or wheal: The branch left a red welt across his arm.^[17][12][3]
4. A blow that raises such a mark.^[17]

Verb

1. To furnish or trim with a welt, especially to stitch a welt on a shoe.^[6][17][12]
2. To beat hard or flog, so as to raise welts: The guards welted the prisoners with sticks.^{[6][17][12][3]}
3. (British) In plumbing, to join two pipes by folding the metal at their ends over each other and pressing it together.^[6][3]
4. To become marked with welts.^[6]

Word family

• welted
• welting
• Goodyear welt