weylawey

Middle English

Alternative forms

• welaway

Etymology

From Old English wā lā wā, weg-lā-weg, wei-lā-wei, wī-lā-wei.

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: wey‧la‧wey

Interjection

weylawey

1. A general interjection expressing distress, regret, or sorrow: alack, alas, lackaday.
   • 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Myllers Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales (in Middle English), [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 xv, recto, column 2:

     Alas quoth Abſolon, and welaway / That trewe loue was euer ſo yuel byſette / Than kiſſe me, ſyn it may be no bette / For Jeſus loue, and for the loue of me.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Descendants

• English: welaway, wellaway (archaic)