Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • An ancient region of western Europe south and west of the Rhine River, west of the Alps, and north of the Pyrenees, corresponding roughly to modern-day France and Belgium. The Romans extended the designation to include northern Italy, particularly after Julius Caesar's conquest of the area in the Gallic Wars (58–51 BC).
  • noun A Celt of ancient Gaul.
  • noun A French person.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun etc. An obsolete or occasional spelling of gall, gall, etc.
  • See gowl, yowl.
  • noun A wooden pole or bar used as a lever.
  • noun An inhabitant of ancient Gaul, a country divided by the Alps into Cisalpine Gaul (northern Italy) and Transalpine Gaul (modern France, with Belgium and parts of Germany, of Switzerland, and of the Netherlands); specifically, a member of the Gallic or Celtic race, in distinction from other races settled in the same regions.—2. In modern use, a Frenchman: as, the lively Gaul.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The Anglicized form of Gallia, which in the time of the Romans included France and Upper Italy (Transalpine and Cisalpine Gaul).
  • noun A native or inhabitant of Gaul.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun A Roman-era region roughly corresponding to modern France and Belgium
  • noun A person from Gaul.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a Celt of ancient Gaul
  • noun an ancient region of western Europe that included what is now northern Italy and France and Belgium and part of Germany and the Netherlands
  • noun a person of French descent

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French Gaule ("Gaul"), from Middle French Gaule ("Gaul"), from Old French Gaule, Waulle ("Gaul"), a word used as a translation of Latin Gallia ("Gaul"), from Frankish *Walholant (“Gaul, Land of the Romans, foreigners”), from Frankish *Walha (“foreigners, Romans, Celts”), from Proto-Germanic *walhaz (“an outlander, foreigner, Celt”), probably of Celtic origin, from the same source as Latin Volcae ("name of a Celtic tribe in South Germany, which later emmigrated to Gaul"). Akin to Old High German Walh, Walah ("a Celt, Roman, Gaul"), Old English Wealh, Walh ("a non-Germanic foreigner, Celt/Briton/Welshman"), Old Norse Valir ("Gauls, Frenchmen"). More at Wales, Cornwall, Walloon.

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