hwæl

Middle English

hwæl

From Proto-West Germanic *hwal, from Proto-Germanic *hwalaz, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kʷálos (“large fish, sheatfish”). Cognate with Old Saxon hwal, Old High German wal, Old Norse hvalr, Latin squalus (“shark”). Perhaps also related to Finnish kala, from Proto-Uralic *kala.

hwæl m

whale
- Voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan
  Hē fōr ðyder, tōēacan þæs landes sċēawunge, for ðǣm horshwælum, forðǣm hī habbað swȳðe æþele bān on hyra tōþum: þā tēð hȳ brōhton sume þǣm cyninge; and hyra hȳd bið swīðe gōd tō sċiprāpum. Sē hwæl bið miċle lǣssa þonne ōðre hwalas: ne bið ne lengra ðonne syfan elna lang; ac, on his āgnum lande, is sē betsta hwælhuntað: þā bēoð eahta and fēowertiġes elna lange, and þā mǣstan, fīftiġes elna lange; þāra, hē sǣde, þæt hē syxa sum ofslōge syxtiġ on twām dagum.
  He went thither, in addition to the surveying of that land, because of the walruses, because they have very excellent bones on their tusks: they brought some of the teeth to the king; and their hides are very good for use as cables. This whale is much smaller than other whales; it is no longer than seven ells; but the best whaling is found in its own land: the whales are forty-eight ells long, and the largest are fifty ells; of those, he said that he as one of six killed sixty in two days.

Strong a-stem:

Middle English: whal, swale, wale, whalle, whale, quale, quall, qwall, qwalle (mainly Northern), whaale (late), qwayll, qwaylle (Catholicon Anglicum), hwæl (Early Middle English)
- English: whale
- Scots: whaul