From onelook.com:
▸ noun: an indolent or clumsy rolling about ("A good wallow in the water")
▸ noun: a puddle where animals go to wallow
▸ verb: delight greatly in ("Wallow in your success!")
▸ verb: devote oneself entirely to something; indulge in to an immoderate degree, usually with pleasure ("Wallow in luxury")
▸ verb: be ecstatic with joy
▸ verb: roll around, "pigs were wallowing in the mud"
▸ verb: rise up as if in waves
From etymonline.com
O.E. wealwian "to roll," from W.Gmc. *walwojan, from PIE *wal-, *wel- "to roll" (see vulva). Fig. sense of "to plunge and remain in some state or condition" is attested from c.1230. The noun is recorded from 1591.
That first verb definition caught me by surprise. I've always thought of this word as being a slough of despond kind of thing. I've never associated it with joy, that is to say.
Wallow
Interesting word.
I guess due to my, um, rural roots, I've always thought of it as either a place where animals go to wallow; or to roll around.
We have a Bear Wallow Road not far from here, although it's been quite a while since any bears were doing any wallowing.
The use that surprised me was the last usage there, "to rise up as if in waves". I've heard of ships wallowing, but always took that to mean that they were rolling.
I guess due to my, um, rural roots, I've always thought of it as either a place where animals go to wallow; or to roll around.
We have a Bear Wallow Road not far from here, although it's been quite a while since any bears were doing any wallowing.
The use that surprised me was the last usage there, "to rise up as if in waves". I've heard of ships wallowing, but always took that to mean that they were rolling.
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Slava
- Great Grand Panjandrum
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Which is where I don't get the "joy" bit of the definition, at least for us humans. Pigs in mud are probably feeling pretty good, as that's how they cool off.Animals always seem to wallow in the mud, humans in self-pity.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.
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Slava
- Great Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 8082
- Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 9:31 am
- Location: Finger Lakes, NY
Well, it's a bit prurient perhaps, but if you were rolling around having a lot of fun, wallowing in your youth, shall we say, then it does sound like fun, if not a joke.Ha! Actually, not far from there.-was that back in Wallow, Wallow, Washington?Interesting word.
I guess due to my, um, rural roots...
Also, spent much of the '90s not far from Wallowa, OR.
There's gotta be a joke in there somewhere...
Hmm, have we had prurient as a Goodword?
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.
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