GENTILE FORMS.
§ 273. The only word in the present English that requires explanation is
the name of the principality _Wales_.
1. The form is _plural_, however much the meaning may be _singular_; so
that the -s in _Wale-s_ is the -s in _fathers_, &c.
2. It has grown out of the Anglo-Saxon from _wealhas_ = _foreigners_, from
_wealh_ = _a foreigner_, the name by which the Welsh are spoken of by the
Germans of England, just as the Italians are called Welsh by the Germans of
Germany; and just as _wal-nuts_ = _foreign nuts_, or _nuces Galliæ_.
_Welsh_ = _weall-isc_ = _foreign_, and is a derived adjective.
3. The transfer of the name of the _people_ inhabiting a certain country to
the _country_ so inhabited, was one of the commonest processes in both
Anglo-Saxon and Old English.
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