Meanings
alternative welaway · alternative well away · alternative welladay · alternative well-a-day
- archaicliteraryExpression of sadness, regret, remorse, etc., alas, "woe"!
Crying with pitteous voice, and count'nance wan; / Ah well away, most noble Lords, how can / Your cruell eyes endure so pitteous sight [...]?
1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC2 more examples
Replied the Angel, "Wellaway! Wellaway! this may be in no way." And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. When it was the Four Hundred and Sixtyfourth Night, She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious ...
2013, anonymous author, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a, Simon and Schuster, →ISBNWellaway, wellaway, ah, wellaway! ' As ocean beat the stone, did she her breast, 'Ah, wellaway! . . ah me ! alas, ah me !' Such sighing uttered she. ii A Cloud spake out of heaven, as soft as rain That falls on water, — ' Lo, The Winds have ...
1920, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning: With Two Prose Essays, page 292
Origin
- Old Norsevei
- Old Englishweġ lā weġ
- Middle Englishweylawey
- Englishwellaway
From Middle English weylawey, from Old English weġ lā weġ, alteration of wā lā wā, with substitution of Old Norse vei for Old English wā. Compare wellawo, weila.
More words from Middle English, Old English, Old Norse
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
wellaway. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wellaway
“wellaway.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wellaway. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “wellaway,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wellaway.
Source: wellaway on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.