Now dial. (see Eng. Dial. Dict.) Forms: 1 wealʓ, 3 walh, 5 walhwe, walow, 6 walowe, 9 wallow. See also WAUGH a. [OE. wealʓ (*walʓ) = LG. walg, insipid (cf. MDu. walghe ‘nausea, fastidium’), Norw. valg tasteless:—OTeut. *walwo-:—pre-Teut. *wolqwo-.
The disyllabic wallow represents the inflected form wealʓ-; in the uninflected form the final (γ) became (χ), yielding the mod. northern WAUGH.]
Tasteless, insipid; sickly.
c. 897. K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past. C., lviii. 447. Se wearma welð on godum cræftum, ðylæs he sie wealʓ for wlæcnesse, & forðæm weorðe utaspiwen.
c. 1230. Hali Meid., 35. Þi muð is bitter, & walh al þat tu cheowest.
1825. Brockett, N. C. Words, Wallow, insipid.
1886. S. W. Linc. Gloss., s.v., Oh, mother, how wallow this here bread is!—Why, bairn, I’d gotten no salt to put in it; it maks it a bit wallowish.
b. Comb.: † wallow-sweet a., ? cloyingly sweet.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 515/1. Walhwe swete [Winch. walow-swete], supra in bytter swete.
1532. More, Confut. Tindale, Pref. E e iij b. The olde holsome wyne … [doth] offend theyr dronken taste, bycause yt is not so walow swete but drynketh more of ye verder. Ibid. (1534), Treat. Passion, Wks. 1274/1. But the walowe sweete pleasure of that fruite, soone tourned to displeasure and payne.
