31 May 2016

A welcome supercut


To learn something from this, we need to look up the etymology of "welcome" -
From Middle English welcome, wolcume, wulcume, wilcume, from Old English wilcuma ("one whose coming is pleasant, a welcome person or thing, a guest"; compare also wilcume ‎(“welcome!”, interjection)), from Proto-Germanic *wiljakwumô ‎(“a comer, a welcomed guest”), equivalent to will ‎(“desire”) +‎ come ‎(“comer, arrival”). Cognate with Scots walcome ‎(“welcome”), West Frisian wolkom ‎(“welcome”), Dutch welkom ‎(“welcome”), German willkommen ‎(“welcome”), Danish and Norwegian velkommen ‎(“welcome”), Swedish välkommen ‎(“welcome”), Icelandic velkomin ‎(“welcome”).

Similar constructions are common in Romance languages, such as Italian benvenuto, Spanish bienvenido, French bienvenue and Portuguese bem-vindo, each meaning “[may you have fared] well [in] coming [here]”.

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