List of English words of Welsh origin


This is a list of English language words of Welsh language origin. As with the Goidelic languages, the Brythonic tongues are close enough for possible derivations from Cumbric, Cornish or Breton in some cases.
Beyond the loan of common nouns, there are numerous English toponyms, surnames, personal names or nicknames derived from Welsh.

Words that derive from Welsh

; avon : from Welsh afon; Cornish avon
; bara brith : speckled bread in Welsh. Traditional Welsh bread flavoured with tea, dried fruits and mixed spices.
; bard : from Old Celtic bardos, either through Welsh bardd or Scottish bardis ; Cornish bardh
; cawl : a traditional Welsh soup/stew; Cornish kowl
; cist : a stone lined coffin
; coracle : from corwgl. But this Welsh term was derived from the Latin corium meaning "leather or hide", the material from which coracles are made.
; corgi : from cor, "dwarf" + gi, "dog".
; crag : from an Insular Celtic source, perhaps from Welsh craig'or 'Carreg.; Cornish karrek
; : from crom llech literally "crooked flat stone"
; crwth : "a bowed lyre"
; cwm
; eisteddfod : from Welsh, lit. "session," from eistedd "to sit" + bod "to be".
; flannel : the Oxford English Dictionary says the etymology is "uncertain", but Welsh gwlanen = "flannel wool" is likely. An alternative source is Old French flaine, "blanket". The word has been adopted in most European languages. An earlier English form was flannen, which supports the Welsh etymology. Shakspeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor contains the term "the Welsh flannel".
; flummery : from llymru
; hiraeth : homesickness tinged with grief or sadness over the lost or departed. It is a mix of longing, yearning, nostalgia, wistfulness, or an earnest desire.
; kistvaen : from cist and maen.
; : from llech.
; : a type of small, thick pancake. Derived from the Welsh bara pyglyd, meaning "pitchy bread", later shortened simply to pyglyd; The early 17th century lexicographer, Randle Cotgrave, spoke of "our Welsh barrapycleds". The word spread initially to the West Midlands of England, where it was anglicised to picklets and then to pikelets. The first recognisable crumpet-type recipe was for picklets, published in 1769 by Elizabeth Raffald in The Experienced English Housekeeper.
; tref : meaning “hamlet, home, town.”; Cornish tre.
; wrasse : a kind of sea fish.

Words with indirect or possible links

origins for the topographical terms Tor and crag are among a number of available Celtic derivations for the Old English antecedents to the modern terms. However, the existence of similar cognates in both the Goidelic, Latin, Old French and the other Brythonic families makes isolation of a precise origin difficult, such as for example, the adoption of the word Cross from Latin Crux, Old Irish cros, OE Rood ; appearing in Welsh and Cornish as Croes, Krows.
; adder: The Proto-Indo-European root netr- led to Latin natrix, Welsh neidr, Cornish nader, Breton naer, West Germanic nædro, Old Norse naðra, Middle Dutch nadre, any of which may have led to the English word.
; bow: May be from Old English bugan "to bend, to bow down, to bend the body in condescension," also "to turn back", or more simply from the Welsh word bwa
; coombe: meaning "valley", is usually linked with the Welsh cwm, also meaning "valley", Cornish and Breton komm. However, the OED traces both words back to an earlier Celtic word, *kumbos. It suggests a direct Old English derivation for "coombe".
; crockery
;crumpet: Welsh crempog, cramwyth, Cornish krampoeth or Breton Krampouezh; 'little hearth cakes'
; druid: From the Old Celtic derwijes/derwos from which the modern Welsh word derwydd evolved, but travelled to English through Latin and French
;gull: from either Welsh or Cornish; Welsh gwylan, Cornish guilan, Breton goelann; all from O.Celt. *voilenno- "gull"
;hog: Cornish Hogh
;iron: or at least the modern form of the word "iron", appears to have been influenced by pre-existing Celtic forms in the British Isles: Old Welsh hearn, Cornish hoern, Breton houarn, Old Gaelic íarn
;lawn: from Welsh Llan Cornish Lan ; Heath; enclosed area of land, grass about a Christian site of worship from Cornish Lan or Welsh Llan
;penguin: possibly from pen gwyn, "white head". "The fact that the penguin has a black head is no serious objection." It may also be derived from the Breton language, or the Cornish Language, which are all closely related. However, dictionaries suggest the derivation is from Welsh pen "head" and gwyn "white", including the Oxford English Dictionary, the American Heritage Dictionary, the Century Dictionary and Merriam-Webster, on the basis that the name was originally applied to the great auk, which had white spots in front of its eyes. Pen gwyn is identical in Cornish and in Breton. An alternative etymology links the word to Latin pinguis, which means "fat". In Dutch, the alternative word for penguin is "fat-goose", and would indicate this bird received its name from its appearance.
;tor:meaning hill or mountain, possibly via Latin turris such as Glastonbury Tor, is particularly prevalent in Devon.:Mither

Welsh words used in English

English words lifted directly from Welsh, and used with original spelling :