welcome
Part of speech: adj
noun
verb
Morphological type: compound
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).
Compound parts: will
come
Inflected forms:
form: welcomer
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: welcomest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: welcum
pos: adj
tags: alternative
pronunciation-spelling
form: welcomes
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: welcum
pos: noun
tags: alternative
pronunciation-spelling
form: welcomes
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: welcoming
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: welcomed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: welcomed
pos: verb
tags: past
form: welcum
pos: verb
tags: alternative
pronunciation-spelling
Senses:
gloss: Whose arrival is a cause of joy; received with gladness; admitted willingly to the house, entertainment, or company.
pos: adj
examples: a welcome visitor
Refugees are welcome in our city!
When the glad soul is made Heaven's welcome guest.
gloss: Producing gladness.
pos: adj
examples: a welcome turn of events;  welcome news
“A very welcome, kind, useful present, that means to the parish. By the way, Hopkins, let this go no further. We don't want the tale running round that a rich person has arrived. Churchill, my dear fellow, we have such greedy sharks, and wolves in lamb's clothing. […]”
gloss: Followed by to: free to have or enjoy gratuitously.
pos: adj
examples: You are welcome to the use of my library.
As a political system democracy seems to me extraordinarily foolish, but I would not go out of my way to protest against it. My servant is, so far as I am concerned, welcome to as many votes as he can get. I would very gladly make mine over to him if I could.
gloss: The act of greeting someone’s arrival, especially by saying "Welcome!"; reception.
pos: noun
gloss: The utterance of such a greeting.
pos: noun
gloss: Kind reception of a guest or newcomer.
pos: noun
examples: We entered the house and found a ready welcome.
Truth finds an entrance and a welcome too.
the warmest welcome at an inn
gloss: The state of being a welcome guest; a feeling of one's presence and comfort being desired.
pos: noun
examples: 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.
gloss: To affirm or greet the arrival of someone, especially by saying "Welcome!".
pos: verb
examples: 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.
gloss: To accept something willingly or gladly.
pos: verb
examples: 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.
Derived words: outstay one's welcome
understay one's welcome
wear out one's welcome
welcome pole
welcome to my life
welcome to the club
Translations: