Is “To Welsh” Offensive?

Hi there. You have A Way with Words.

Yes, hi there. How are you?

Doing well. Who’s this and where are you?

This is Rod, and I’m in La Porte, Indiana.

Well, Rod, what can we do for you?

My ancestry on my father’s side, going way back, came here from Wales. And I’ve always been happy with that ancestry and lots of great actors, singers, writers from Wales.

Sure.

But in the course of time, I’ve heard people refer to Welshing on a debt, and that always bothered me. I didn’t know what it meant, but it sounded a little bit like an ethnically nasty kind of thing to say. So I’m not sure whether it is that or not.

Yeah, it is. It goes back to this reputation that the Welsh supposedly had for being dishonest or for cheating people. One of the earliest forms of it we find is a Welsher, somebody who cheats on a debt or cheats on a deal or an agreement. These days, the Welsh people that I’ve spoken to, and I’ve known a few, all kind of laugh at it and find it a little hurtful, but they wouldn’t rank it up there with the worst ethnic slurs.

Well, maybe not quite that bad, right?

It’s very avoidable, though. It’s one of those words that once you realize that there might be somebody offended by it and that it goes back to this undeserved reputation, you can easily just say they reneged or waffled or flip-flopped or whatever approximate synonym you can come up with.

I’d like to trace it to one particular Welsh crumbum who gave the rest of us a hard time.

Could be, right? One guy. There’s always one, right? 1850s at least, probably older. It goes back to the idea of taffy, which is the stereotypical name for a Welsh person, taffy being dishonest and cheating a gambler out of what he’s owed.

Grief. Well, I’m sure Richard Burton and Dylan Thomas and myself all object to this.

All three of you.

Yeah, the Welsh have gotten a raw deal in a lot of different ways, and I don’t want to go too much of a tangent, but in particular, their language has often been stomped on, trampled on, mistreated, ignored, outlawed, ruled against, and so forth over the very long history of the Welsh and the English.

Yeah, well, if you’re not born Welsh, the Welsh language is well worth avoiding.

Oh, I don’t know. Every language has got its joys, right?

Yeah, my grandfather on my mother’s side had ancestors who were Welsh, and I love to hear him count in Welsh.

Oh, that must be something to hear.

Yeah, aim, tain, tethery, feathery, something like that. It was very musical.

I know it’s quite baffling to look at a Welsh road sign and have no clue as to how to pronounce it.

None.

Oh, a day with a grammar book, you’d have that squared away in no time, at least the pronunciation part, if not some of the meaning.

Well, I know you guys are busy looking up lots of things, but if you ever have some spare time, find that one bad Welshman and give the rest of us a break.

Yeah, we’ll do, Rod. But you’re right. It is considered offensive by some, and it’s certainly avoidable, so people should try to avoid saying somebody works. I’m sure there are very few Greeks or Russians who find it offensive. But as a Welshman, I do find a defense.

All right, you take care of yourself, all right?

Nice to talk to you.

Thanks, Rod.

Bye-bye.

So long.

So that verb is to Welsh, W-E-L-S-H, or to Welch, W-E-L-C-H.

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