Etymology

Gawain

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Today it means: One of the greatest knights in Arthurian legend; he is King Arthur's nephew and a Knight of the Round Table. Full definition →

Middle English Gawayne ← Old French Gauvain ← Old Welsh [Term?]
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The story

  1. Proto-Celtic · derived from*wolkos
  2. Proto-Brythonic · derived from*gwalx“hawk”
  3. Celtic · derived from
  4. Old Welsh · derived from[Term?]
  5. Old French · derived fromGauvain
  6. Middle English · inherited fromGawayne
  7. English todayGawain

From Middle English Gawayne, from Old French Gauvain, from Old Welsh [Term?], probably of Celtic origin, like many other characters from Arthurian legends, perhaps from Proto-Brythonic *gwalx (“hawk”) (from Proto-Celtic *wolkos) + *gwɨnn (“white”). Doublet of Gavin. More at Gawain.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.