int. (sb., v.) Now arch. and dial. Forms: 6 well a daye, 6–7 wel(-)aday, (8 wel-a-day), 6 wellada, 7 wel-adaie, weleaday, welady, welody, welliday, 7, 9 well a-day, 6– well-a-day, welladay. Also 6, 8–9 Sc. and dial. wal(l)aday; 6 wer(e)aday, 9 dial. werraday. [altered f. WELLAWAY, by substitution of DAY (or ADAY), as in wo worth the day, lackaday.]
A. int. An exclamation expressing sorrow or lamentation; = alas! Also with ah or O prefixed.
c. 1570. W. Elderton, in Collect. B. L. Ballads, etc. (1867), 1. Well a daye, well a daye, well a daye, woe is me.
1570. Levins, Manip., 196/42. Wel aday, heu, hei.
1591. Spenser, Virg. Gnat, 417. Ah (waladay) there is no end of paine.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., III. ii. 37. A welady [Q. 2 weraday], hee’s dead, hee’s dead. Ibid., IV. v. 15. Oh weladay [Q. 2 wereaday], that euer I was borne.
1599. T. Cutwode, Caltha Poet. (Roxb.), xxxix. But walladay, he was not there aware of Cupids shaft.
1602. W. S., Thomas Ld. Cromwell, IV. ii. 22. A, welliday for my Cowe!
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 198. Alas and weladay, what shall we doe?
1648. Herrick, Hesper., Mad Maid’s Song, iii. Alack and welladay!
1652. C. B. Stapylton, Herodian, xiii. 105. Then quire of Boys and Ladies sighing Welody, With Hymns and Pæans making dolefull Melody.
1719. D’Urfey, Pills, VI. 284. Alack and a welladay.
17[?]. Gaberlunzie-man, v. in Ramsay’s Tea-t. Misc. (1762), I. 79. She clapt her hand, cry’d, Waladay.
1781. Cowper, Hope, 428. Well-a-day, the title page was lost!
1798. Coleridge, Anc. Mar., II. 135 [139]. Al wel-a-day! [later well a-day!] what evil looks Had I from old and young.
1813. Moore, Twopenny Post Bag, viii. 35. Thou know’st the time, too, well-a-day! It takes to dance that chalk away.
1842. Barham, Ingol. Leg., Lay St. Cuthbert. Well a day! Well a day! All he can say Is but just so much trouble and time thrown away.
1851. Hawthorne, Twice-told T., I. viii. 154. But, welladay, we hear a shrill voice of affliction.
1888. Sheffield Gloss., Werraday, welladay.
b. in reduplicated form wella, welladay.
1805. G. McIndoe, Poems, 92. The precious clay, Which in the tomb, with tears, I laid, Wella welladay!
1820. Keats, Eve St. Agnes, xiii. And as she mutter’d ‘Well-a—well-a-day!’
B. sb. The utterance of this exclamation; lamentation; a lament.
1582. T. Watson, Centurie of Love, lxxxii. (Arb.), 118. At last, though late, farewell olde wellada.
1597. Beard, Theatre God’s Judgem., I. xvi. 57. Their ioyfull song was turn’d to mournfull cries, And all their gladnesse chang’d to welladaies.
1598. Petowe, 2nd Pt. Hero & Leander, C iij b. This all alone sad Lady gan to play Framing sweet musick to her welladay.
1608. Shaks., Per., IV. iv. 49 (1st Qo.). His daughters woe and heauie welladay.
1814. Mrs. J. West, Alicia de Lacy, II. 291. Her ears were alternately assailed by the peccavis of penitence and the well-a-days of love.
transf. 1593. G. Harvey, New Let. Notable Cont., C 2 b. Let him be the Falanta downe-didle of Ryme, the Hayho-halliday of Prose, the Walladay of new writers.
C. v. intr. To cry ‘welladay.’ nonce-use.
1835. Clare, Rural Muse, 153. The swains are sighing all, and well-a-daying.
