# welk
## English
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /wɛlk/
* Rhymes: -ɛlk

### Etymology 1

From Middle English welken, probably from a continental Germanic language; compare Middle Dutch welken (Dutch welken) and Middle Low German welken. Cognate with German welken. Ultimately, from Proto-West Germanic *wilkijan (“to become soft”), from Proto-Germanic *welkaz (“soft, withered”), according to Kluge, related to *wulkną (“cloud”).
Compare also Old English wealwian (“to fade, wither”), Old English wlacu (“tepid, lukewarm”).

#### Verb

welk (third-person singular simple present welks, present participle welking, simple past and past participle welked)
* (obsolete) Of a plant: to wither, wilt, decay.
* (obsolete) To diminish; to lose brightness, to wane.
** 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 23, page 9:As gentle Shepheard in ſweete euentide, / When ruddy Phebus gins to welke in weſt, [...]
** 1641 May, John Milton, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England: And the Cavvses that hitherto have Hindred it; republished as Will Taliaferro Hale, editor, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England (Yale Studies in English; LIV), New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1916, →OCLC, 2nd book, page 257:[T]he Church that before by inſenſible degrees welk'd and impair'd, now with large ſteps went down hill decaying; [...]
* (dialectal) to soak, steep.
* (dialectal) to thrash, beat severely.
* To contract; to shorten.
** 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “Nouember. Ægloga Vndecima.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC, folio 44, verso:But nowe ſadde Winter welked hath the day, / And Phœbus weary of his yerely taſ-ke: / Yſtabled hath his ſteedes in lowlye laye / And taken vp his ynne in Fiſhes haſ-ke.
* (transitive) To form into wrinkles or ridges.

### Etymology 2
#### Noun

welk (plural welks)
* Alternative form of whelk

### Anagrams

* kewl, lewk

## Dutch
### Etymology

From Middle Dutch welc, from Old Dutch *wilik, *welik, from Proto-Germanic *hwilīkaz.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ʋɛlk/
* Audio:(file)
* Hyphenation: welk
* Rhymes: -ɛlk

### Determiner

welk
* which (what, of those mentioned or implied)

#### Declension
### Pronoun

welk
* (relative, formal) which

#### Derived terms

* dewelke
* hetwelk
* welkdanig

#### Descendants

* Berbice Creole Dutch: weleke
* Negerhollands: welk, welleke, welli
* Skepi Creole Dutch: welk

### Anagrams

* kwel

## German
### Etymology

From Middle High German welc, from Old High German welk; see the verb welken. Cognate with Hunsrik wellich.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈvɛlk/
* Audio:(file)

### Adjective

welk (strong nominative masculine singular welker, comparative welker, superlative am welksten or am welkesten)
* wilted, faded

#### Related terms

* welken
* verwelken

### Further reading

* “welk” in Duden online
* “welk” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

## Middle English
### Etymology 1

From Old English weoloc, wiloc, wioloc, weluc, from Proto-West Germanic *weluk.

#### Alternative forms

* welke, whelke, wilke, woelk, wylk, wylke

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /wɛlk/, /wilk/

#### Noun

welk (plural welkes)
* whelk (sea snail)
* (rare) whelk shell

##### Descendants

* English: whelk, welk, whilk, wilk
* Scots: wulk, wilk, welk
* → Old French: welke

##### References

* “welk(e, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

### Etymology 2
#### Verb

welk
* Alternative form of welken (“to dry out”)