different between excurvature vs weal

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: w?l, IPA^(key): /wi?l/
• Rhymes: -i?l
• Homophone: we'll; wheal, wheel (in accents with the wine-whine merger)

Etymology 1

From Middle English wele, from Old English wela (“wellness, welfare, prosperity, riches, well-being, wealth”), from Proto-Germanic *walô (“well-being, wellness, weal”). Cognate with German Wohl, Danish vel, Swedish väl.

Noun

weal (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) Wealth, riches. [10th-19th c.]
2. (literary) Welfare, prosperity. [from 10th c.]
3. (by extension) Boon, benefit.
   • 1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 557:

     And indeed I blamed myself and sore repented me of having taken compassion on him and continued in this condition, suffering fatigue not to be described, till I said to myself, "I wrought him a weal and he requited me with my ill; by Allah, never more will I do any man a service so long as I live!"

4. Specifically, the general happiness of a community, country etc. (often with qualifying word). [from 15th c.]
   • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin 2003, page 372:

     Louis could aim to restyle himself the first among citizens, viewing virtuous attachment to the public weal as his most important kingly duty.

Derived terms

• commonweal
• wealful
• wealsman
• wealth

Related terms

• in weal or woe

Translations

Etymology 2

See wale.

Noun

weal (plural weals)

1. A raised, longitudinal wound, usually purple, on the surface of flesh caused by a stroke of a rod or whip; a welt.

   Synonym: wheal

   • 1958, T. H. White, The Once and Future King, London: Collins, 1959, Chapter 16,^[1]

     He had been slashed sixteen times by mighty boars, and his legs had white weals of shiny flesh that stretched right up to his ribs.

   • 2007, Tan Twan Eng, The Gift of Rain, New York: Weinstein Books, Book Two, Chapter Twenty-One, p. 422,^[2]

     And I saw the green island in the immense sea, the borders of the sea curling with a lining of light, like a vast piece of rice paper, its edges alive with weals of red embers, ready to burst into flame.

Translations

Verb

weal (third-person singular simple present weals, present participle wealing, simple past and past participle wealed)

1. To mark with stripes; to wale.

Anagrams

• alew, e-law, lawe, wale