Sorry Rhys but I couldn't resist it,
The word Welsh is actually an Old English word meaning “slave†and at first was applied by the Anglo-Saxons.
And of course there are the Merriam-Webster definitions of Welsh:
1 : to avoid payment -- used with on <welshed on his debts>
2 : to break one's word : RENEGE <welshed on their promises>
but these are related to more recent English-Welsh quarrells.
it would seem likely that Welsh borrowed the word from English
That would make a change as English is the language that has 'borrowed' the most foreign words.
My copy of Britannica says that Bikini is the only universal word and was coined by a Frenchman (after the Atol) to describe his clothing design. This is probably helped by the French law that states that other new universal words (such as computer) have to be given a French name. The French guy I work with says that older folk in France really frown on the use of 'OK' by the young as the 'official' word is dacour.
I'd better finish now before I annoy anyone else. :twisted:
BTW. I'm going to France on holiday in a few weeks, and I hope that I don't end up in a fight, like I did last time. It was at the time of the last bout of the French not allowing the import of our meat, and I was cleaning the insects off my windscreen and the front of my car quite dilligently, as I waited in the ferry terminal at Calais for a ferry back to England. A car load of French lads gesticulated and suggested in French that I was being very careful and I replied in English that I didn't want to accidentally import any of their meat. At least the security guards saw the funny side of it and let us on the next ferry first! :roll: