welkin

English

Etymology

From Middle English welkne, wolkne (“clouds, heavens”), from Old English wolcnu (“clouds”), plural of wolcen (“cloud”), from Proto-Germanic *wulkaną, *wulkō, *wulkô (“cloud”), from Proto-Indo-European *welg-, *welk- (“wet, moist”). Cognate with Dutch wolk (“cloud”), Dutch welken (“to wither”), Low German Wulke (“cloud”), German Wolke (“cloud”), German welken (“to wither”). More at welk.

Noun

welkin (plural welkins)

1. (archaic) The sky, the upper air; the heavens.
   • c1388, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales,

     This day in mirth and revel to dispend

     Till on the welkin shone the starres bright

   • 1739, Charles Wesley, Hymns and Sacred Poems, Bristol, Hymns for Christmas Day:

     Hark! How all the welkin rings!

   • 1924, Herman Melville, Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co., Chapter 11, [1]

     To him, the spirit lodged within Billy, and looking out from his welkin eyes as from windows, that ineffability it was which made the dimple in his dyed cheek, suppled his joints, and dancing in his yellow curls made him preeminently the Handsome Sailor.

   • 1951, Bosley Crowther, “Great Caruso Makes Its Debut”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)^[2], The New York Times:

     Miss Kirsten and Miss Thebom are ladies who can rock the welkin, too, and their contributions to the concert maintain it at a musical high.

Synonyms

The terms below need to be checked and allocated to the definitions (senses) of the headword above. Each term should appear in the sense for which it is appropriate. Use the templates {{syn|en|...}} or {{ant|en|...}} to add them to the appropriate sense(s).

• lift, firmament

Derived terms

• make the welkin ring

Translations

sky — see sky

(archaic) the sky, the upper air, the heavens

• Dutch: uitspansel (nl) n, hemelgewelf n
• Hungarian: mennybolt (hu)

• Turkish: sema (tr), feza (tr), asuman (tr), arş (tr), uçmağ (tr), felek (tr)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Hungarian: ^{(please verify)} égbolt (hu)

• Icelandic: andlangur m (archaic)

Further reading

• [3] Welkin, Michael Quinion

Anagrams

• winkle