a river-course or ravine; e.g. Wâdi-el-Ain (the ravine of the fountain); Wâdi-Sasafeh (of the pigeons); Wâdi-Sidri (of the thorn); Wady-Solab (of the cross); Wâdy-Shellal (of the cataract); Wâdy-Magherah (of the caves); Wady-Sagal (of the acacia); Wady-Mousa (of Moses); Wâdy-Abou-hamad (of the father fig-tree, named from a very old tree); Wady-Mokatteb (of the writing, from the number of inscriptions made by pilgrims); Wady-hamman (of the wild pigeons).
WALD (Ger.),
WEALD, WOLD (A.S.),
a wood or waste land; e.g. Walden-Saffron, in Essex (the waste land on which saffron was afterwards cultivated); the Weald, Wold, and Wealdon (the waste lands), in Essex, Kent, Lincoln, and Yorkshire; Waltham and Walthamstow (the dwelling-place near the wood); Waldstadt, Waldheim, Walddorf (dwellings near the wood), in Germany; Waldeck (woody corner, or corner of the wood); Waldshut (the forest hut), in Switzerland; Boëmerwald (the Bohemian forest); Waldau (woody meadow); Waldsassen (the settlement in the wood); Unterwalden (under or below the wood); Zinnwald-Sachsisch (the wood near the Saxon’s tin mine); Finsterwalde (the dark wood); Greifswald (the griffin’s wood); Habechtswald (hawk’s wood); Lichtenwald (the cleared wood); Rugenwalde (the wood of the Rugii, a tribe), in Pomerania; Regenwalde and Saalwalde (the woody districts of the rivers Rega and Saale); Methwald (in the midst of woods), in Norfolk; Leswalt (the pasture, laes, in the wood), in Wigtonshire; Mouswald (the wood near Lochar Moss), in Dumfriesshire; Wooton-Basset, in Wilts (the woody town of the Basset family, so called from the quantity of wood in the neighbourhood).
WALL (Old Ger.),
WEALL (A.S.),
an embankment, a rampart, a wall, cognate with the Lat. vallum, the Gadhelic balla, and the Welsh gwal; e.g. Walton, on the Naze, where there was a walled enclosure to defend the northern intruders from the assaults of their hostile Saxon neighbours; Walton, also, in the east corner of Suffolk (the town near the wall); also Walton, on the Thames; Walton-le-dale and Walton (on the hill), in Lancashire; Wallsend (at the end of the wall), in Northumberland; Walford, in Hereford (the ford near a Roman fortification); Wallsoken (the place near the wall, where the judicial courts were held)—v. SOC; Walmer (the sea-wall), in Kent; Wallburg, Walldorf (walled towns), in Germany; Wallingford, in Berks, anc. Gallena, Welsh Gwal-hen (the old wall or fortification), A.S. Wealingaford; Wallmill, Wallshiels, Wallfoot, Wallhead, places in Northumberland near the wall of Adrian; Walpole (the dwelling, bol, near the wall), in Norfolk, a sea-bank raised by the Romans as a defence from the sea; but Walsham and Walsingham, in Norfolk, take their name from the Waelsings, a tribe. This place was called by Erasmus Parathalasia, Grk. (by the sea-beach).
WALSCH (Ger.),
WEALH (A.S.),
VLACH (Sclav.),
foreign. These words were applied by the Teutonic and Sclavonic nations to all foreigners, and to the countries inhabited or colonised by those who did not come from a Teutonic stock or speak their language. In the charters of the Scoto-Saxon kings the Celtic Picts of Cambria and Strathclyde were called Wallenses; e.g. Wales, Gwalia—root gwal or gall, foreign. The Welsh call their own country Cymru (the abode of the Kymry or aborigines)—(the home of the Cymric Celts), so named by the Saxons; Wallachia (the strangers’ land, vlach), so called by the Germans and Sclaves because colonised by the Romans; Walcherin, anc. Walacria or Gualacra (the island of the strangers or Celts); Cornwall (the horn or promontory of the Celts); also Cornuailles (a district in Brittany peopled by British emigrants from Wales); Wallendorf (the town of the strangers), the German name for Olaszi or Olak, in Hungary, peopled by Wallachians; Wallenstadt and Wallensee (the town and lake on the borders of the Romansch district of the Grisons, conquered by the Romans under Constantius); Wâlschland, the German name for Italy. The Celts of Flanders were also called Walloons by their German neighbours; and Wlachowitz, in Moravia, means the town of the Wallachs or strangers. The Gadhelic gall (foreign), although used with the same meaning as wealh, is not connected with it. It is a word that has been applied to strangers by the Irish from the remotest antiquity; and as it was applied by them to the natives of Gaul (Galli), gall, in the first instance, might mean simply a native of Gaul. It was afterwards used in reference to the Norwegians, Fionn-ghaill (the fair-haired strangers); and to the Danes, Dubh-ghaill (the dark-haired strangers); and in connection with them and with the English the word enters largely into Irish topography; e.g. Donegal, i.e. Dun-nau-Gall (the fortress of the foreigners or Danes); Clonegall and Clongall (the meadow of the strangers); Ballynagall and Ballnagall (the town of the strangers, or English). For the further elucidation of these words v. Irish Names of Places, by Dr. Joyce, and Words and Places, by the Rev. Isaac Taylor. The words Gaill and Gallda are applied by the Highlanders of Scotland to their countrymen in the Lowlands, but they have no connection with the name which they apply to themselves—The Gaidheil, derived from an ancestor Gaodal.
WANG (Ger. and A.S.),
a field or strip of land, allied to the Scottish whang, a slice; e.g. Feuchtwang (moist field); Duirwangen (barren field); Ellwangen, anc. Ellhenwang (the field of the temple, eleh or alhs); Affolterwangen (apple-tree field); Wangford (the ford of the wang).
WARA (Sansc.),