hwæl

hwæl

1. (Early Middle English) alternative form of whale

From Proto-West Germanic *hwal, from Proto-Germanic *hwalaz, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kʷálos (“large fish, sheatfish”). Cognate with Old Saxon hwal, Old High German wal, Old Norse hvalr, Latin squalus (“shark”). Perhaps also related to Finnish kala, from Proto-Uralic *kala.

• IPA^(key): /xwæl/, [ʍæl]

hwæl m

1. whale
   • Voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan

     Hē fōr ðyder, tōēacan þǣs landes sċēawunge, forðæm horshwælum, forðæm hī habbað swyðe æþele bān on hyra tōþum: þā tēð hȳ brōhton sume þǣm [cyninge]; and hyra hȳd bið swīðe gōd tō sċiprāpum. Sē hwæl bið micle lǣssa þonne ōðre hwalas: ne bið ne lengra ðonne syfan elna lang; ac, on his āgnum lande, is sē betsta hwælhuntað: þā bēoð eahta and fēowertiges elna lange, and þa mǣstan, fiftiġes elna lange; þāra, hē sǣde, þǣt hē syxa sum ofslōge syxtiġ on twām dagum.

     He went thither, in addition to the surveying of that land, because of the walruses, because they have very excellent bones on their tusks: they brought some of the teeth to the king; and their hides are very good for use as cables. This whale is much smaller than other whales; it is no longer than seven ells; but the best whaling is found in its own land: the whales are forty-eight ells long, and the largest are fifty ells...

Strong a-stem:

• Middle English: whal, swale, wale, whalle, whale, quale, quall, qwall, qwalle (mainly Northern), whaale (late), qwayll, qwaylle (Catholicon Anglicum), hwæl (Early Middle English)
  • English: whale
  • Scots: whaul