Now arch. Forms: α. weʓ lá weʓ, wei lá wei(2 wí lá wei), 3 wæilawæi, 3–4 weilawei, 3–5 -wai (6 Sc. -wa), 4–5 weilawey, 3–5 -way, 5–6 weillaway (5 -weye), 4–5 weylaway (5 weyle-away, -awey); 4–5 weylowey (weyllo-), weyloway, 5 weilowey, -waie; 4–5 weile, weyleway. β. 3–4 wailawai, 3–5 -way; 3–4 waile-wei, 4 -way, 5 -wey (3–4 wailwai), 4–5 wailoway, 6 waile a way; 3–5 wayla-, 4–5 wayle-, wayloway. γ. 3–4 walawai, 4–5 -waie, walewai(e; 3–5 (9) walaway, 4–5 -weye, -wey(e, 4 wale(a)way, woleway; 4–5 walo(w)way; Sc. 6–7 walla-, 6 wallo-, 7 wallouway, 8 walaways, 9 wally-wae. δ. 3 welawei, 5 -weie, 4–5 -wey, 4 -weye; 4–7 welaway, 4–6 -waye, 5 -waie, whela-, weloway; 4–5 well-, welle awey, 5 well y weye, 5–6 well-, 6 welle awaye; 5–7 (9) wellaway (well-away, well-a-way); Sc. 6 welloway, 9 wellawa, 8–9 williwa (9 will a waes). ε. 4–5 weleawey, 4–6 -away, 6 Sc. weill away, 6–7 wealaway, weale away. [OE. weʓ lá weʓ, wei lá wei, an alteration of wá lá wá (see WELLAWO), by substitution of the OScand. interjection *wei (ON. and Icel. vei; see WEILA) for OE. wá. The later forms are partly normal phonetic developments, partly the result of contamination with forms representing OE. wá lá wá, and partly due to the first element being identified with, or replaced by, wel, wele WELL adv. (cf. WELLA).]

1

  A.  int. An exclamation of sorrow or lamentation. (Cf. WELLADAY, -ANEAR, -A-WINS.)

2

  Formerly often in phr. to sing wellaway, my (his, etc.) song is wellaway.

3

  α.  c. 888.  Ælfred, Boeth., xxxv. § 7. Weilawei [Bodl. wila wei].

4

c. 1000.  Lambeth Ps. xxxix. 16. Qui dicunt mihi euge euge, Þa þe cweðaþ me weʓla weʓ vel wala wa vel eala eala.

5

c. 1205.  Lay., 17918. Wæilawæi, wæilawæi,… muchel is þa sorȝe þe isiȝen is to londe.

6

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 64. Weilawei, min eie haueð irobbed al mine soule.

7

1297.  R. Glouc. (Rolls), 8193. De mount scabiouse was aslawe, weilaway.

8

c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 12238. Biside þe toumbe þis womman lay, & often cried ‘wey la way!’

9

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Reeve’s T., 152. Iohn … gan to crie: harrow and weylaway.

10

1412–20.  Lydg., Chron. Troy, IV. 4392. For now her trust of knyȝthod was away, Her worþi men slayen, weillaway!

11

c. 1440.  Ps. Penit. (1894), 29. Defautes fele that me deface, Maketh me synge weylawey.

12

  β.  a. 1250.  Owl & Night., 220. Þu singist aniȝht and noȝt adai & al þi song is wailawai [Jesus MS. waylaway].

13

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 8669. Bot wailawai! it sua bitide, Mi felaw smord hir barn in bedd.

14

c. 1400.  Gamelyn, 197 (Harl. MS.). And þer he herd a Frankeleyn wayloway syng.

15

1513.  Bradshaw, St. Werburge, II. 1614. Women and children cried ‘out and waile-a-way.’

16

  γ.  a. 1300.  Cursor M., 9056. Has þou, coth þai, þi lau renaid? Yaa, soth haf i, walawai! he said.

17

13[?].  Gosp. Nicod., 1314 (Sion MS.). For come he here, I haue greete drede we sal say waloway.

18

1340.  Hampole, Pr. Consc., 2434. Þan sal walaway be þi sang.

19

c. 1460.  Towneley Myst., v. 36. Now, alas, and walo-way!

20

c. 1480.  Henryson, Fox & Wolf, 155. Now, quod the Foxe, allace and wallaway!

21

a. 1568.  in Bannatyne MS. (Hunter. Club), 378. Now, walloway, is thair no help?

22

1724.  Ramsay, Tea-t. Misc. (1775), I. 136. Walaways! I dow to do!

23

  δ.  a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 408. Louerd, wultu smiten?… Welawei! þu meiht wel.

24

1303.  R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 11214. ‘Welaweye’ þey cry and sey.

25

c. 1374.  Chaucer, Anel. & Arc., 338. But welawaye, to far ben thei to fecche.

26

14[?].  Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1903), 125/63. Therfore my song is well-y-wey!

27

c. 1440.  Partonope, 6497. Hys songe was not but wellawaye.

28

15[?].  Adam Bel, st. 99, in Child, Ballads (1888), III. 27. Alas that euer I se this daye!… Alas and welawaye.

29

1553.  Bradford, Serm. Repentance (1574), E v. But alas and welaway … Gods anger … hath taken him away by death.

30

1581.  J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 410. Wellaway surely may Purgatory sing, if it have no better Proctour to uphold it, then Luther.

31

1590.  Spenser, F. Q., II. viii. 46. Harrow and well away [ed. 1609 weal-away].

32

1657.  W. Rand, trans. Gassendi’s Life Peiresc, II. 139. Alas and well away.

33

1818.  Scott, Rob Roy, xxxii. There is not a farmer but shall sing well-a-wa over a burnt barnyard and an empty byre.

34

1820.  A. Sutherland, St. Kathleen, IV. 116. Will a waes man, but ye hae a lang account to sattle.

35

1878.  A. Mary F. Robinson, Handful Honeysuckle, 80. Alas, and Wellaway!

36

  ε.  13[?].  K. Alis., 4481 (Laud MS.). For Oxeatre & Darriadas He grade weleaway & allas.

37

c. 1412.  Hoccleve, De Reg. Princ. (Roxb.), 1958. But weleaway! so is myne hert wo.

38

1426.  Audelay, Poems, 10. In hunger, in cold, in thurst, weleaway! Afftyr here almes ay waytyng.

39

c. 1495.  The Epitaffe, etc., in Skelton’s Wks. (1843), II. 391. Alas for sorowe therefore! Oute and weleway.

40

c. 1530.  Hyckescorner, 549. We all may say weleaway For synne that is now-adaye.

41

1580.  H. Gifford, Gilloflowers (1875), 101. Her song was woe, and weale away.

42

1616.  W. Browne, Brit. Past., II. i. 13. Alas and weale away, since now I stand in such a plight.

43

  b.  with so or full prefixed.

44

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 15366–7. He mai sai walawai Full walwa þan mai he sing. Ibid., 22703. Þis midelerth, ful wail wai [Edinb. ful wailewai, Trin. so wayleway], Al to noght sal brin awai.

45

c. 1369.  Chaucer, Bk. Duchesse, 729. Phyllis also for Demophon Henge hir selfe, so weylaway.

46

c. 1440.  York Myst., vi. 24. For vs is wrought, so welaway, Doole endurand nyghte and day.

47

1513.  Douglas, Æneis, VI. i. 52. Quhairin he porturit als, full welloway, The luif abhominable of quene Pasyphe.

48

  c.  followed by that and clause, expressing the ground or subject of lament. † Also with what = how!

49

c. 1200.  Trin. Coll. Hom., 183. A weilewei, þu fule hold, þat ich auere was to þe iteied.

50

c. 1205.  Lay., 8031. Wæila wæi wæila wæi Þæt he is þus i-faren awæi.

51

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 17575. Walawai quat þai war blind.

52

c. 1330.  Arth. & Merl., 6801 (Kölbing). Quaþ king Angvisaunt: Woleway, Þat ich euer bot þis day.

53

1390.  Gower, Conf., III. 286. Helas, mi Soster, waileway, That evere I sih this ilke day!

54

c. 1440.  York Myst., xxxii. 309. So wala way Þat euere I was in witte or wille Þat tristy trewe for to be-traye.

55

1596.  Spenser, F. Q., V. i. 15. Ah woe is me, and well away (quoth hee) … That euer I this dismall day did see.

56

  † d.  Followed by a sb. = alas for…, woe worth…. Also with to or for + sb. Obs.

57

a. 1300.  K. Horn, 956. Walawai þe stunde! Wailaway þe while!

58

13[?].  Guy Warw. (1891), 400. Wayle-way þat stounde.

59

c. 1374.  Chaucer, Troylus, III. 1078. Allas þi wyle Serueth of nought, so wel-awey þe while. Ibid., 1695. But cruel day, so wel-awey þe stounde, Gan for to aproche.

60

c. 1400.  Emare, 812. He wepte and sayde, Welle-a-wey, For my sone so dere!

61

a. 1400–50.  Wars Alex., 4564. Wailaway to wriches, & wa is ȝow in erthe.

62

c. 1440.  York Myst., vi. 93. Sa welaway for harde peyne.

63

1579.  Spenser, Sheph. Cal., Sept., 58. Wel-away the while I was so fonde.

64

  B.  sb. 1. The utterance of this exclamation. Hence, lamentation, a lament.

65

a. 1300.  K. Horn, 1478 (Camb.). He makede Rymenhilde lay, & heo makede walaway.

66

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 24352. Bot quen i raxsild vp in rage, I ne wist bot wail wai [Gött. walaway, Edinb. walewai].

67

c. 1450.  Cov. Myst., Cain & Abel, 193. Now wyl I go wende my way With sore syeng and wel away.

68

1552.  Lyndesay, Monarche, 5474. With lowde allace and welaway.

69

1553.  Bradford, Serm. Repent. (1574), To Rdr. B ij b. Then was weale away, mourning and woe.

70

16[?].  J. D., Mare of Collingtoun, in Watson’s Collect. Sc. Poems (1706), I. 42. With mony a Shout and Wallaway.

71

1820.  Keats, Isabella, lxi. Spirits of grief, sing not your ‘Well-a-way!’ For Isabel, sweet Isabel, will die.

72

1823.  Galt, Entail, II. 160. I wish that I was dead, but I’m no like to dee, as Jenny says in her wally-wae about her father’s cow and auld Robin Gray.

73

1884.  T. Woolner, Silenus, 22.

        Syrinx he saw … plunge in the stream
And her young spirit pass into the reeds
That now were whispering her sad well-away.

74

  b.  transf. A cause of lamentation.

75

1593.  G. Harvey, New Let. Notable Cont., A 3 b. Who honoureth not the very name of the renowned Lepanto:… the Halleluia of Christendome, & the Welaway of Turky?

76

  † 2.  Sorrow, distress, misery, woe. Obs.

77

1303.  R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 11222. So, betwyxe fals and coueytous, ys welaweye broȝt to hous.

78

c. 1375.  Cursor M., 22472 (Fairf.). Quar-to sulde we be borne to-day & se bot sorou & waleway.

79

1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. XVIII. 227. Wote no wighte … what is witterly wel til weyllowey hym teche.

80

1402.  Fr. Daw Topias, in Pol. Poems (Rolls), II. 112. Thou shalt have the weleaway of Gelboth hilles, the sorowe of Sodome, and al sinful citeis.

81

1597.  Guistard & Sismond, I. B 3 b. Bringing forth the night, and care, and wele-away.

82

1640.  Sir A. Johnston (Ld. Wariston), Diary (S.H.S.), 240. Thou bad sorrou fall the, and another tyme wallouway fall the.

83