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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