Contextualizebeta

welcome

adj
/ˈwɛl.kəm/CA

Etymology

From Middle English welcome, wolcume, wulcume, wilcume, from Old English wilcuma (“a wished-for guest”; compare also wilcume (“welcome!”, interjection)), from Proto-West Germanic *willjakwemō, from Proto-Germanic *wiljakwemô (“a wished-for arrival or guest”), possibly from *wiljakwemaną (“to be welcome”), equivalent to will (“desire”) + come (“comer, arrival”). The component wil- was replaced by wel- when the sense “guest” of the second component was no longer understood, likely under influence from the adverb well. Cognates Cognate with Scots walcome, Yola welcome, welkome, North Frisian welkimen, Saterland Frisian wilkemen, wäilkeemen, wülkemen, West Frisian wolkom, Alemannic German wol chomne, wolgcheemen, woul chemne, wéllkòmm, Cimbrian bóolkhèmm, Dutch welkom (earlier willecome), German willkommen, German Low German willkamen, Limburgish welkom, wéllekemm, Luxembourgish wëllkomm, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål velkommen, Elfdalian welkumin, Faroese vælkomin, Icelandic velkominn, Norwegian Nynorsk velkomen, Swedish välkommen, and Old French wilecome (whence Middle French willecomme (“welcome”)), from Germanic. The verb is from Middle English welcomen, wolcumen, wilcumen, from Old English wellcumian, wylcumian, wilcumian (“to welcome, receive gladly”). Similar constructions are found in Modern Greek καλώς ορίσατε (kalós orísate), South Slavic languages, such as Bulgarian добре́ дошъ́л (dobré došǎ́l), Serbo-Croatian dobrodošao, and also in Romance languages, such as Italian benvenuto, Spanish bienvenido, French bienvenu, Catalan benvingut, Portuguese bem-vindo and Romanian bun venit, meaning “[may you have fared] well [in] coming [here]”. These Romance terms do not derive from a Classical Latin root, as no similar construction in Latin is found to exist, but are instead presumed (considering the ruling elite of the Germanic kingdoms which succeeded the Western Roman Empire) to be the result of a calque from a Germanic language into Proto-Romance (Vulgar Latin; see Latin *bene venūtus, and compare perdōnō and compāniō for similar historical calques).

  1. inherited from wellcumian
  2. inherited from welcomen
  3. inherited from *wiljakwemô✻ — “a wished-for arrival or guest”
  4. inherited from *willjakwemō✻
  5. inherited from wilcuma
  6. inherited from welcome

Definitions

  1. Whose arrival is a cause of joy

    Whose arrival is a cause of joy; received with gladness; admitted willingly to the house, entertainment, or company.

    • a welcome visitor
    • Refugees are welcome in our city!
    • When the glad soul is made Heaven's welcome guest.

  2. Producing gladness.

    • a welcome turn of events;  welcome news

  3. Followed by to

    Followed by to: free to have or enjoy gratuitously.

    • You are welcome to the use of my library.
  4. ›+ 9 more definitions

    1. Greeting given upon someone's arrival.

      • Welcome to the life of Electra Heart!

    2. Ellipsis of you're welcome..

    3. The act of greeting someone’s arrival, especially by saying "Welcome!"

      The act of greeting someone’s arrival, especially by saying "Welcome!"; reception.

    4. The utterance of such a greeting.

    5. Kind reception of a guest or newcomer.

      • We entered the house and found a ready welcome.
      • Truth finds an entrance and a welcome too.
      • the warmest welcome at an inn

    6. The state of being a welcome guest

      The state of being a welcome guest; a feeling of one's presence and comfort being desired.

      • The townspeople crossed freely from bank to bank, and it stayed that way until breakup in March or April or, in years when winter outstayed its welcome, maybe even May.

    7. To affirm or greet the arrival of someone, especially by saying "Welcome!".

      • But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud,[…]. By the time we reached the house we were thanking our stars she had come. Mrs. Cooke came out from under the port-cochere to welcome her.
      • Finnley is the fourth daughter of Jason and Kylie Kelce, having already welcomed Wyatt, Elliotte and Bennett to the family.

    8. To accept something willingly or gladly.

      • We welcome suggestions for improvement.
      • CPS MerseyCheshire welcomes the jailing of Helen Dove who conned her friend into giving up her job for a dream post that never existed. Kimberley McDonnell lost around £50,000 because of the fraudster.
      • Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang welcomed cooperation with South Korea.

    9. A surname.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at welcome. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01welcome02entertainment03passively04resignedly05acceptance06receiving07reception

A definitional loop anchored at welcome. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

7 hops · closes at welcome

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA