Welsh

It is a prevalent feature of the history of the British Isles that as the English have become dominant, they have created stigmatic stereotypes and mildly insulting nicknames for the original Celtic peoples, namely the Scots, the Irish, and the Welsh. In the language of the Anglo-Saxon invaders, the name of the Welsh , namely wealas , originally meant “a Celt or a Briton,” but then, reflecting the changing power relations and considerable arrogance, came to mean “a foreigner,” after which a cognate verb wealian developed the meaning “to behave immorally.” This semantic deterioration is also found in barbarian .

The dominant stereotypical qualities attributed to the Welsh are backwardness, slyness, treachery, and dishonesty. The process started early, in Walter Map’s description of the people in the twelfth century: “They are treacherous to each other as well as to foreigners, covet freedom, neglect peace” (L’Estrange 2002, 199). The Description of Wales by Giraldus Cambrensis (“Gerald the Welshman,” 1194) added: “It is because of their sins, and more particularly their detestable vice of homosexuality, that the Welsh were punished by God and so lost first Troy and the Britain.” (Giraldus was subscribing to the popular myth that Britain had been founded by Aeneas after the fall of Troy.) A dictionary of 1785 gave Wales the nickname of Itchland, referring ironically to the prevalence of lice. (The same name was subsequently given to Scotland.) Francis Grose’s Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1796) included the previous definition and Welsh comb for “the thumb and four fingers.” Taffy , the nickname for a Welshman, derived from Daffyd, the Welsh for David, is first recorded in a slang dictionary of 1700, and has become well known in the English nursery rhyme:

Taffy was a Welshman, Taffy was a thief
Taffy came into my house and stole a side of beef.

Self-mocking criticism is a feature of the Welsh, as with the Irish. “This arsehole of the universe … this … fond sad Wales” comes from a letter by Dylan Thomas (July 17, 1950).

There is, incidentally, no connection with the verb “to welsh” meaning “to swindle or cheat,” recorded from about 1857, especially used in the context of horse racing and absconding bookmakers. However, the close connection is such that prominent politicians—for example, former president Bill Clinton—have been known to apologize for any offense that might be caused by using the word.