wealh

Etymology
. Compare,.

Noun

 * 1)  In Anglo-Saxon England, a speaker of a Brythonic language, especially Welsh.

Etymology
From, from , from a name also represented by Latin.

Having originally apparently referred to a neighboring Celtic tribe, it was broadened to refer to any inhabitant of the Western Roman Empire and then, in Britain, narrowed to refer to native Brythons, and later to people in particular. Owing to the presence of native Brythonic slaves in some areas, it also came to be used to refer to slaves (compare semantic formation of ), though only alongside – never supplanting – its ethnic meaning. The narrowing of meaning away from the continental Germanic meaning of Roman towards referring to Insular Celtic peoples was finalized by the late seventh century; rare occurrences of this term referring to Romans, such as the term Rumwalas found in Widsith, are explained as archaisms inherited from an older tradition.

Noun

 * 1) Celt
 * 2) Welsh person
 * 3)  Roman
 * 4)  foreigner
 * 5)  slave