sb. and a. Also 6 Vallon, 8 Waloon, 6– Wallon. [a. F. Wallon (fem. Wallonne), sb. and a.:—med.L. Wallōn-em, f. Teut. *walah, walh, foreigner (OE. wealh): see WELSH a. The name represents the appellation given by the Teut. Flemings and Franks to their Romanic-speaking neighbors.] A. sb.
1. A man or woman of the race, of Gaulish origin and speaking a French dialect, which forms the chief portion of the population of the southeastern provinces of Belgium.
1567. Gresham, in Burgon, Life (1839), II. 208. I sawe never men so desperate, willing to fight and speciallie the Vallons.
1577–87. Holinshed, Chron., III. 1145/1. A rumor … that the Lantgraues capteine should be slaine by some Wallons.
1591. Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., I. i. 137. A base Wallon … Thrust Talbot with a Speare into the Back.
1665. Manley, Grotius’ Low C. Wars, 41. The Regent, beside the German Souldiers,… commanded another Regiment of Walloons to be forthwith raised; for by that name, the people in that part of the Netherlands, which borders upon France, are called, and are distinguished from the others, by the use of the French Tongue, and beside, are more valiant, and not so dull-witted as the rest.
1650. R. Stapylton, Strada’s Low C. Wars, IX. 54. Some companies of Wallons were also ordered to bring scaling-ladders.
1777. Watson, Philip II. (1839), 209. Fifty companies of Spaniards, and one hundred and fifty of Walloons, and other natives of the Netherlands.
1888. Encycl. Brit., XXIV. 332/2. The Wallons … are thus Romanized Gauls.
1916. F. Passelecq, in 19th Century, Oct., 717. In the defence of their national territory, Flemings and Walloons have always been so closely united that it would be impossible to distinguish them.
2. The language or dialect of the Walloons.
1642. Howell, Instr. For. Trav., x. (Arb.), 48. The French have three dialects, the Wallon (vulgarly called among themselves Romand), the Provensall,… and the speech of Languedoc.
1815. R. B. Bernard, Tour France, etc., 292. The lower orders in this city speak a jargon called Walloon, which is completely unintelligible to the higher classes.
1914. E. Gosse, in Edin. Rev., Oct., 314. The less known … new school of authors, composing ardently in Flemish and even to some extent in Walloon.
Comb. 1918. Em. Cammaerts, in 19th Century, Nov., 833. With the exception of a few Walloon-speaking villages along the German frontier taken by Prussia in 1815, no other territorial claim could be popular in Belgium.
B. adj. Pertaining to the Walloons.
1530. Palsgr., 35. The kynde of speche nowe called Vallon or Romant. Ibid., 286/2. Wallon tonge, Romant.
a. 1600. Hist. Fryer Bacon, in Thoms, E. E. Pr. Rom. (1858), I. 226. He hyred a Walloon souldier.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 13, ¶ 2. Monsieur Bosnage, Minister of the Walloon Church at Rotterdam.
1842. Borrow, Bible in Spain, xiii. 97. One of my comrades of the Walloon Guard.
1888. Encycl. Brit., XXIV. 332/2. The Wallon domain comprises the four provinces of Hainault, Namur, Liége, and Luxemburg.
1911. G. P. Gooch, Hist. Our Time, x. 236. Where the Walloon miners and factory-workers of the South confront the Catholic Flemings of the North.
