welkne

Middle English

FWOTD – 18 May 2026

Alternative forms

welken, welkene, welcon, welkyn
walcne, walken, walkene, walkne, walkon, walkyn, walkyne (East Anglia, East Saxon, West Midland)
weolcne, weolkene, weolkne, weolkyn, wolcne, wolken, wolkene, wolkne, wolkon, wolkyn (Southern, West Midland)

Etymology

Inherited from Old English wolcnu, plural of wolcen, wolcn, from Proto-West Germanic *wolkn.

Forms with /ɛ/ reflect either an Old English collateral form *welcn, *welcne or a dissimilatory change from /wɔ/ to /wɛ/ (West Midland /wœ/; compare dwele, Wednesday); Middle English forms with /ɔ/ possibly reflect a further development of this rather than a direct continuation of the vocalism of Old English wolcn. In the West Midlands, forms with /a/ reflect either the Mercian Old English development from /o/ to /ɑ/ between a labial and /l/, /r/ (see morwe), while in East Anglia and Essex, they presumably reflect a later and more restricted development from /wɔl/ to /wal/.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈwɛlkən/, /ˈwɛlk(ə)nə/
IPA^(key): /ˈwalkən/, /ˈwalk(ə)nə/ (East Anglia, East Saxon, West Midland)
IPA^(key): /ˈwœlkən/, /ˈwœlk(ə)nə/, /ˈwɔlkən/, /ˈwɔlk(ə)nə/ (Southern, West Midland)

Noun

welkne (uncountable)

The upper sky or atmosphere (as occupied by weather).
- c. 1340 [c. 1175], Kẏng Alıſaundre (Lincoln's Inn MS. Hale 150), Shropshire, translation of Roman de toute chevalerie by Thomas de Kent (in Anglo-Norman), published c. 1400, folio 48, verso; republished as Alysaunder, London: The Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn Rare Books and Manuscripts Online, 4 April 2023:
  […] No þe sunne hadde beo seẏe / ﬀoꝛ þe duſt of þe poudre / No þe weolkẏn seon me mẏȝt / So was arewes and quarels flẏȝt
  […] Neither had the sun been seen / because of the dust of the gunpowder; / neither could you see the sky / due to the flight of arrows and quarrels.
Outer space as visible from Earth; the firmament or heavens.
- 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Clerke of Oxenfordes Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, →OCLC, folio liiii, verso, part 6:
  Thus hath this pytous day a blyſful ende / For euery man & woman doth hys myght / Thys daye in myrth and reuel to dyſpende / Tyl on the welken ſhone the ſterres bryght / For more ſolempne in euery mannes ſyght / Thys feeſt was, and greater of coſtage / Then was the reuel of her mariage
  Thus hath this piteous day a blissful end / For every man & woman doth his might / This day in mirth and revel to dispend / Till on the welkin shone the stars bright / For more solemn in every man's sight / This feast was, and greater of costage / Than was the revel of her marriage
(medieval cosmology) One of the celestial spheres.
(Early Middle English) A cloud (mass of water droplets)

Descendants

English: welkin (literary)

References

“welken, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.