Etymology

welkin

wel·kin
W4E1L1K5I1N1

Today it means: The sky which appears to an observer on the Earth as a dome in which celestial bodies are visible; the firmament. Full definition →

Middle English welkne ← Old English wolcnu ← Proto-West Germanic *wolkn
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · inherited from*wĺ̥ɡ-no-m
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*wulkną“cloud”
  3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*wolkn“cloud”
  4. Old English · inherited fromwolcnu“sky, heavens”
  5. Middle English · inherited fromwelkne“weather; heavens; (earlier) cloud”
  6. English todaywelkin

Inherited from Middle English welkne (“weather; heavens; (earlier) cloud”), from Old English wolcnu (“sky, heavens”), plural form of wolcn (“cloud”), from Proto-West Germanic *wolkn (“cloud”), from Proto-Germanic *wulkną (“cloud”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *wĺ̥ɡ-no-m, from *welg- (“damp; wet”). Cognate with Dutch wolk (“cloud”), German Wolke (“cloud”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.