wale

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• IPA^(key): /ˈweɪl/, [ˈweɪɫ]
• Rhymes: -eɪl
• Homophones: wail; whale (wine–whine merger)

The noun is from Middle English wāle (“planking, welt”), from Old English walu (“ridge, bank; rib, comb (of helmet); metal ridge on top of helmet; weal, mark of a blow”), from Proto-Germanic *waluz (“stick, root”), from Proto-Indo-European *welH- (“to turn, wind, roll”). Akin to Low German wāle; Old Norse vala (“knuckle”). The verb is from late Middle English wālen, from the noun.

wale (plural wales)

1. A ridge or low barrier.
2. A raised rib in knitted goods or fabric, especially corduroy.

   Coordinate term: course

   • 1979, Kax Wilson, A History of Textiles, Westview Press, →ISBN, pages 66-67:

     Most twills are continuous—the wale goes from one corner to the one diagonally opposite. Pattern, however, can be achieved by periodically changing the direction of the wales.

   • 1990, Sharon Alderman, A Handweaver's Notebook, →ISBN, page 50:

     I have woven a small sample of striped corduroy shown here. […] The stripe draws the eye from side to side while the wales draw the eye up and down.

   • 2008, Mary Lisa Gavenas, The Fairchild Encyclopedia of Menswear, page 99:

     The fabric may be further described according to the number of wales per inch: Corduroy known as fine wale, pin-wale, or needle wale has very thin wales (usually twelve or more per inch, i.e., the width of a pin), while wide wale corduroy has thicker wales (usually six or fewer per inch).

3. The texture of a piece of fabric.
   • 1892, “Family Fashions and Fancies”, in Good Housekeeping, volume 14, page 85:

     Crepon cloths, with their heavy crape-like wale, are a noteworthy part of the season's importations.

4. (nautical) A horizontal ridge or ledge on the outside planking of a wooden ship. (See gunwale, chainwale)
   • 1863, Andrew Murray, Ship-building in Iron and Wood, page 93:

     The strakes between the several ranges of ports, beginning from under the upper-deck ports of a three-decked ship in the royal navy, are called the channel wale, the middle wale, and the main wale.

5. A horizontal timber used for supporting or retaining earth.
   • 1889 February 23, Architecture and Building: A Journal of Investment and Construction, volume 10, page 63:

     A few feet below the first wale another timber is inserted, likewise secured by struts.

6. A timber bolted to a row of piles to secure them together and in position.^[1]
   • 1754, Thomas Gardner, An Historical Account of Dunwich […] :

     Except Plank upon the Head of the Key, and under the upper Wale, and Plank to join the piles.

7. A ridge on the outside of a horse collar.
   • 1976, Ralph Whitlock, Gentle giants: the past, present and future of the heavy horse, page 133:

     The wale is shaped to the size of the horse's neck, and then sewn together, with a flap, known as the 'barge', left free along one side. To this 'barge' the body of the collar is sewn.

8. A ridge or streak produced on skin by a cane or whip.
   • 1597, [Joseph Hall], “(please specify the page)”, in Virgidemiarum, Sixe Bookes. First Three Bookes, of Tooth-lesse Satyrs. […], London: […] Thomas Creede, for Robert Dexter, →OCLC:

     Shall then that foule infamous Cyneds hide Laugh at the purple wales of others side?

   • 1854, S. W. Koelle, African Native Literature, Or Proverbs, Tales, Fables and Historical in the Kanuri Or Bornu Language:

     When the rat had looked at the toad's whole body, and not seen any wale of a stick, he said to the toad, "Brother toad, I have looked at thy whole body, and not seen any wale of a stick: thou art right."

   • 2018, Seabury Quinn, The Dark Angel: The Complete Tales of Jules de Grandin, Volume Three:

     I ran to her, and when I reached her I saw across the white skin of her shoulders the distinct wale of a whip.

• waling

wale (third-person singular simple present wales, present participle waling, simple past and past participle waled)

1. To strike the skin in such a way as to produce a wale or welt.
   • 1832, Owen Felltham, Resolves, Divine, Moral, Political:

     Would suffer his lazy rider to bestride his patie: back, with his hands and whip to wale his flesh, and with his heels to dig into his hungry bowels?

2. To beat a person, especially as punishment or out of anger.
   • 2002, Hal Rothman, Neon Metropolis: How Las Vegas Started the Twenty-First Century:

     When faced with an adulthood that offered few options, grinding poverty and marriage to a man who drank too much and came home to wale on his own family or...no beatings.

3. To give a surface a texture of wales or welts.

• wale on
• whale
• weal
• wheal

From Middle English wale, wal, from Old Norse val (“choice”), from Proto-Germanic *walą, *walō (“desire, choice”), from Proto-Indo-European *welh₁- (“to choose, want”). Akin to Old Norse velja (“to choose”), Old High German wala "choice" (German Wahl "choice"), Old English willan (“to want”). More at will.

wale (plural wales)

1. (Scotland, Northern England) Something selected as being the best, preference; choice.

wale (third-person singular simple present wales, present participle waling, simple past and past participle waled)

1. (Scotland, Northern England) To choose, select.

• wail (obsolete)

• “wale”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “wale”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

• alew, e-law, lawe, weal

• IPA^(key): /waˈle/ [wʌˈlɛ]
• Hyphenation: wa‧le

walé f

1. possibility

• Mohamed Hassan Kamil (2015), L’afar: description grammaticale d’une langue couchitique (Djibouti, Erythrée et Ethiopie)‎^[1], Paris: Université Sorbonne Paris Cité (doctoral thesis), page 75

wale

1. pig

• 2009 (originally 1968), Douglas Meland, Doris Meland, Fulniô (Yahthe) Syntax Structure: Preliminary Version, Associação Internacional de Linguística - SIL Brasil, page 19.

• IPA^(key): /ˈwa.le/, [ˈʋɐ.le]

Compare with Māori ware “excretion, gum, wax, saliva”, Rarotongan vare “slime”, Tahitian vare “discharge esp. rheum or sleep of the eye” and varea “drowsy (i.e. to have sleep on one's eyes)”; Samoan vavale “snail slime”.^[1]

wale

1. any bodily secretion or mucus including phlegm, saliva
2. any plant exudation or sap

• kūkae

From Proto-Polynesian *wale (“of no account, ordinary; only, just”). Cognate with Samoan vale (“worthless, unproductive”).

wale

1. Used to modify the preceding word only, just, alone; quite, very; simply, for free, without reason

   I kela manawa, ʻaʻohe kāmaʻa, hele wale ka wāwae.

   At that time, there were no shoes, our feet were bare.

• hikiwale (“easy”)

• Pukui, Mary Kawena; Elbert, Samuel H. (1986), “wale”, in Hawaiian Dictionary, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, →ISBN

• IPA^(key): /ˈwaːlə/

wāle

1. alternative form of wel

From Old English wealh. For the phonological development, compare hale.

• wælh

• IPA^(key): /ˈwaːl(ə)/

wale

1. (rare) An outsider; a guest; one from an unfamiliar land.
2. (rare) A thrall; a hireling.

• Wales
• Walsch
• walmore
• walnote
• walwort

• “wāle, n.(3).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 10 May 2018.

From Old English walu, from Proto-West Germanic *walu, from Proto-Germanic *waluz.

• walle, wala

• IPA^(key): /ˈwaːl(ə)/

wale (plural wales)

1. A wooden board used for creating the exterior of a vessel; planking.
2. (rare) A welt; an injury created by use of a whip or a similar weapon.
3. (rare) A lesion; a boil.

• English: wale, weal
• Scots: wale, wail

• “wāle, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 10 May 2018.

Borrowed from Old Norse *valu, earlier form of vǫl, variant of val, from Proto-Germanic *walą.

• wal, wall, wayle

• IPA^(key): /ˈwaːl(ə)/

wale

1. A selection or possibility; a decision.
2. (rare) A preference; something chosen due to its quality.

• walen

• English: wale
• Scots: wale, Scots: wail

• “wāle, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 10 May 2018.

wale

2. amazing, of great quality or talent.
3. pleasing, nice, enjoyable, benevolent
4. strong, firm, strengthy
5. (negatively) impactful, grievous, melancholy
6. (rare) decided, resolved, picked.

• “wāle, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 10 May 2018.

wale

1. alternative form of vale

wale

1. alternative form of wal

wale

1. alternative form of walen

wale

1. alternative form of whal

• wel (Föhr-Amrum, Sylt)

From Old Frisian willa.

• IPA^(key): /ˈvalə/

wale

1. (Mooring) to want

past_3=wälj

wale

1. inflection of walu:
   1. accusative/genitive/dative singular
   2. nominative/accusative plural

• Rhymes: -alɛ
• Syllabification: wa‧le
• Homophone: walę

From wał +‎ -e.

wale nvir pl

1. (Przemyśl, construction) straw rope dipped in clay used in the construction of chimneys

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

wale m inan or m animal

1. locative/vocative singular of wał

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

wale m animal

1. nominative/accusative/vocative plural of wal

• Aleksander Saloni (1899), “wale”, in “Lud wiejski w okolicy Przeworska”, in M. Arct, E. Lubowski, editors, Wisła : miesięcznik gieograficzno-etnograficzny‎^[2] (in Polish), volume 13, Warsaw: Artur Gruszecki, page 246)

From Proto-Polynesian *fale, from Proto-Central Pacific *vale, from Proto-Oceanic *pale, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *balay.

wale

1. house

   Nō mātou te wale nei.

   This is our house.

2. home

   Ka wano au ki wale kaikai.

   I'll go home and eat.

3. building

• waleimu (“cookhouse, kitchen”)
• walepule (“church”)
• walemaki (“hospital”)
• wale āuli (“jail, prison”)

• Te Pukamuna | Pukapuka Dictionary

From Middle English wal, wale, from Old Norse val (“choice”), from Proto-Germanic *walą, *walō (“desire, choice”), from Proto-Indo-European *welh₁- (“to choose, wish”).

Akin to Old Norse velja (“to choose”), Old High German wala (“choice”) (German wählen (“to choose”)), Old English willan (“to want”).

• IPA^(key): /wel/

wale (plural wales)

1. choice, selection

wale (third-person singular simple present wales, present participle walin, simple past and past participle waled)

1. to choose

wale

1. wa class_(II) inflected form of -le

wale

1. third-person plural subjunctive of -la

• IPA^(key): [ˈwa.le]

wale

1. (intransitive) to swing ones arms

• Rika Hayami-Allen (2001), A descriptive study of the language of Ternate, the northern Moluccas, Indonesia, University of Pittsburgh