† wlak, wlach, a. Obs.
Forms: 1 wlacu, -o, wlæc, 3 wlec(c)h, wleach, 3–4 wlach, 4 wlak, 5 wlake.
[OE. wlæc, wlacu (an orig. u-stem) = MLG. wlak lukewarm (whence wlacheit ‘tepor’); cf. OS. wlakon, MLG. wla(c)ken to be tepid; the ulterior relations are doubtful. For the phonology of the final consonant cf. freck a. (ME. frek, frech).]
Lukewarm, tepid; also fig. Also advb. in wlach hot (cf. MLG. wlakwarm).
| c 897 ælfred Gregory's Past. C. xxxvii. 269 Ða ful oft beoð mid wlacum watre ᵹelacnode. Ibid. lviii. 447 Se ðonne bið wearm, nalles wlaco, ðe god ᵹeornlice onginð, & eac ᵹeendað. c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 151 Ðe wop þe man wepeð for his emcristenes wowe cumeð of þe wlache heorte. a 1225 Ancr. R. 400 Forði þet tu ert ase wlech bitweonen two, nouðer cold ne hot. c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. 319/695 Ȝif þov nimst riȝt puyr hot watur and dost cold þar-to, Þov miȝt it makien euene wlach [MS. Harl. wlak]. 1432–50 tr. Higden (Rolls) VII. 522 In comparisoun to that [hote brennyng] lyȝe, oure fier is but as it were wlache hoot. c 1450 Bk. Hawking in Rel. Ant. I. 304 Kepe it with wlake wyn unto the tyme. |