weal

• enPR: wēl, IPA^(key): /wiːl/
• Rhymes: -iːl
• Homophone: we'll; wheal, wheel (in accents with the wine-whine merger)

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.

weal (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) Wealth, riches. [10th-19th c.]
2. (now literary) Welfare, prosperity. [from 10th c.]
   • Francis Bacon

     as we love the weal of our souls and bodies

   • Milton

     to him linked in weal or woe

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.]
   • Macaulay

     Never was there a time when it more concerned the public weal that the character of the Parliament should stand high.

   • 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter IV:

     The austerity of my tone seemed to touch a nerve and kindle the fire that always slept in this vermilion-headed menace to the common weal [...].

   • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin 2003, p. 372:

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

• wealful
• wealsman
• wealth

• in weal or woe

See wale

weal (plural weals)

1. A raised, longitudinal wound, usually purple, on the surface of flesh caused by stroke of rod or whip; a welt.
   • 1796, John Gabriel Stedman, Narrative of a Five Years’ Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam, London: J. Johnson & J. Edwards, Volume 1, Chapter 12, p. 296,

     […] although a few [slaves] live comfortably at Paramaribo, the greatest number are wretched, particularly those governed by a lady, who have many weals to show, but not the smallest indulgence to boast of.

   • 1892, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Great Shadow in The Great Shadow and Beyond the City, Bristol: J.W. Arrowsmith, Chapter 13, pp. 140-141,

     He turned as I struck him and fired full into my face, and the bullet left a weal across my cheek which will mark me to my dying day.

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

     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,

     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.

• wheal

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

1. To mark with stripes; to wale.

• alew, lawe, wale