welkin
Pronunciation Noun
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.002
Pronunciation Noun
welkin (plural welkins) (archaic, except, literary or poetic)
- (also, Lancashire) The sky which appears to an observer on the Earth as a dome in which celestial bodies are visible; the firmament.
- Synonyms: ether, heavens, lift
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC ↗, stanza 9, page 47 ↗:
- He leaues the vvelkin vvay moſt beaten playne, / And rapt with vvhirling vvheeles, inflames the ſkyen, / With fire not made to burne, but fayrely for to ſhyne.
- 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act I, scene ii], page 1 ↗, column 2:
- The ſkye it ſeemes vvould povvre dovvn ſtinking pitch, / But that the Sea, mounting to th' vvelkins cheeke, / Daſhes the fire out.
- c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act I, scene ii], page 278 ↗, column 2:
- Come (Sir Page) / Looke on me vvith your VVelkin eye: […]
- Referring to a blue coloured eye.
- 1739, John Wesley, Charles Wesley, “Hymn for Christmas-Day [later Hark! The Herald Angels Sing]”, in Hymns and Sacred Poems, London: […] William Strahan; and sold by James Hutton, […]; and at Mr. Bray’s, […], →OCLC ↗, part II, verse 1, page 206 ↗:
- Hark hovv all the VVelkin rings / "Glory to the King of Kings, / "Peace on Earth, and Mercy mild, / "God and Sinners reconcil'd!["]
- 1802, Joanna Baillie, “Ethwald: A Tragedy, in Five Acts. Part Second.”, in A Series of Plays: In which It is Attempted to Delineate the Stronger Passions of the Mind. […], volume II, London: […] T[homas] Cadell, Jun. and W[illiam] Davies, […], →OCLC ↗, Act V, scene iii, page 344 ↗:
- I've seen the moving stars / Shoot rapidly athwart the sombre sky, / Red fiery meteors in the welkin blaze, / And sheeted lightnings gleam, but ne'er before / Saw I a sight like this.
- 1817, [Walter Scott], “Canto First”, in Harold the Dauntless; […], Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC ↗, stanza II, pages 10–11 ↗:
- So wide and so far his ravage they knew, / If a sail but gleam'd white 'gainst the welkin blue, / Trumpet and bugle to arms did call, / Burghers hasten'd to man the wall, […]
- 1849, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], “Phœbe”, in Shirley. A Tale. […], volume III, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC ↗, pages 136–137 ↗:
- I look out at some early hour of the day, and see a fine, perfect rainbow, bright with promise, gloriously spanning the beclouded welkin of life.
- 1858 October 15, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “[Birds of Passage.] Sandalphon.”, in The Courtship of Miles Standish, and Other Poems, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC ↗, page 204 ↗:
- When I look from my window at night, / And the welkin above is all white, / All throbbing and panting with stars, / Among them majestic is standing / Sandalphon the angel, expanding / His pinions in nebulous bars.
- 1888–1891, Herman Melville, “[Billy Budd, Foretopman.] Chapter XI.”, in Billy Budd and Other Stories, London: John Lehmann, published 1951, →OCLC ↗, page 257 ↗:
- To him, the spirit lodged within Billy and looking out from his welkin eyes as from windows, that ineffability which made the dimple in his dyed cheek, suppled his joints, and danced in his yellow curls, made him pre-eminently the Handsome Sailor.
- Referring to blue coloured eyes.
- The upper atmosphere occupied by clouds, flying birds, etc.
- c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act III, scene i], page 273 ↗, column 1:
- [W]ho you are, and vvhat you vvould are out of my vvelkin, I might ſay Element, but the word is ouer-vvorne.
- Used figuratively.
- 1853 January, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], “Malevola”, in Villette. […], volume III, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC ↗, page 137 ↗:
- Down washed the rain, deep lowered the welkin; the clouds, ruddy a while ago, had now, through all their blackness, turned deadly pale, as if in terror.
- (religion) The place above the Earth where God or other deities live; heaven.
- 1610, William Camden, “Kent”, in Philémon Holland, transl., Britain, or A Chorographicall Description of the Most Flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland, […], London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press for] Georgii Bishop & Ioannis Norton, →OCLC ↗, page 327 ↗:
- Hovv glittereth novv this place of great requeſt, / Like to the ſeat of heavenly vvelkin hie?
- French: ouelquin (poetic, archaic), voûte céleste (poetic)
- German: Firmament (mildly higher register or poetic), Himmel, Himmelszelt (poetic)
- Russian: небеса
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.002