welcome

Etymology

From Middle English welcome, wolcume, wulcume, wilcume, from Old English wilcuma (“a wished-for guest”; compare also wilcume (“welcome!”, interjection)), from Proto-West Germanic *willjakwemō, from Proto-Germanic *wiljakwemô (“a wished-for arrival or guest”), possibly from *wiljakwemaną (“to be welcome”), equivalent to will (“desire”) + come (“comer, arrival”). The component wil- was replaced by wel- when the sense “guest” of the second component was no longer understood, likely under influence from the adverb well. Cognate with Scots walcome, West Frisian wolkom, Dutch welkom (earlier willecome), German willkommen, German Low German willkamen, Danish velkommen, Norwegian Bokmål velkommen, Norwegian Nynorsk velkomen, velkommen, Swedish välkommen, Icelandic velkominn, Faroese vælkomin, and Old French wilecome (whence Middle French willecomme (“welcome”)), from Germanic. The verb is from Middle English welcomen, wolcumen, wilcumen, from Old English wellcumian, wylcumian, wilcumian (“to welcome, receive gladly”). Similar constructions are found in Romance languages, such as Italian benvenuto, Spanish bienvenido, French bienvenu, Catalan benvingut, Portuguese bem-vindo and Romanian bun venit, meaning “[may you have fared] well [in] coming [here]”. These do not derive from a Classical Latin root, as no similar construction in Latin is found to exist, but are instead presumed to be the result of a calque from, considering the ruling elite of the Germanic kingdoms which succeeded the Western Roman Empire, a Germanic language into Proto-Romance (Vulgar Latin; see Latin *bene venūtus, and compare perdōnō and compāniō for similar historical calques).

adj

1. Whose arrival is a cause of joy; received with gladness; admitted willingly to the house, entertainment, or company.
   a welcome visitor
   Refugees welcome to education!
   When the glad soul is made Heaven's welcome guest. 1782, William Cowper, The Progress of Error
2. Producing gladness.
   a welcome present;  welcome news
3. Free to have or enjoy gratuitously.
   You are welcome to the use of my library.

intj

1. Greeting given upon someone's arrival.
2. (nonstandard, especially Southern US) Ellipsis of you're welcome.

noun

1. The act of greeting someone’s arrival, especially by saying "Welcome!"; reception.
2. The utterance of such a greeting.
3. Kind reception of a guest or newcomer.
   We entered the house and found a ready welcome.
   the warmest welcome at an inn 1735, William Shenstone, Written at an inn at Henley
4. The state of being a welcome guest.
   The townspeople crossed freely from bank to bank, and it stayed that way until breakup in March or April or, in years when winter outstayed its welcome, maybe even May. 1992, Dana Stabenow, A Cold Day for Murder, page 42

verb

1. To affirm or greet the arrival of someone, especially by saying "Welcome!".
2. To accept something willingly or gladly.
   We welcome suggestions for improvement.
   CPS MerseyCheshire welcomes the jailing of Helen Dove who conned her friend into giving up her job for a dream post that never existed. Kimberley McDonnell lost around £50,000 because of the fraudster. 2020-01-29, “Woman jailed for conning her friend into giving up her job for a dream post that never existed”, in CPS Mersey-Cheshire, London: Crown Prosecution Service, retrieved 2020-04-02
   Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang welcomed cooperation with South Korea. Audio (US) (file) 2019, VOA Learning English (public domain)