welcome

a welcome visitor

Refugees welcome to education!

When the glad soul is made Heaven's welcome guest.

1782, William Cowper, The Progress of Error:

Whose arrival is a cause of joy; received with gladness; admitted willingly to the house, entertainment, or company.

a welcome present;  welcome news

“A very welcome, kind, useful present, that means to the parish. By the way, Hopkins, let this go no further. We don't want the tale running round that a rich person has arrived. Churchill, my dear fellow, we have such greedy sharks, and wolves in lamb's clothing. […]”

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

You are welcome to the use of my library.

As a political system democracy seems to me extraordinarily foolish, but I would not go out of my way to protest against it. My servant is, so far as I am concerned, welcome to as many votes as he can get. I would very gladly make mine over to him if I could.

1915, G[eorge] A. Birmingham [pseudonym; James Owen Hannay], chapter I, in Gossamer, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, →OCLC:

en-adj

welcome (comparative more welcome, superlative most welcome)

more welcome (comparative)
most welcome (superlative)

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እንቋዕ ብደሐን መጻእካ

ʾənḳʷaʿ bədäḥän mäṣaʾka

እንቋዕ ብደሐን መጻእኪ

ʾənḳʷaʿ bədäḥän mäṣaʾki

እንቋዕ ብደሓን መጻእኩም

ʾənḳʷaʿ bədäḥan mäṣaʾkum

እንቋዕ ብደሓን መጻእክን

ʾənḳʷaʿ bədäḥan mäṣaʾkən

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).

gloss

“a wished-for guest”; compare also <i class="Latn mention" lang="ang">wilcume</i> (“welcome!”, interjection)


welcome

(nonstandard, especially Southern US) Ellipsis of you're welcome.

እንኳን ደህና መጣህ m እንኳን ደህና መጣሽ f እንኳን ደህና መጡ

ᑕᑕᐘᐤ

both meaning "there is room [for you], so come in"


welcome

The act of greeting someone’s arrival, especially by saying "Welcome!"; reception.

We entered the house and found a ready welcome.

Truth finds an entrance and a welcome too.

1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:

the warmest welcome at an inn

1735, William Shenstone, Written at an inn at Henley:

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, →ISBN, page 42:


welcome

But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud,[…]. By the time we reached the house we were thanking our stars she had come. Mrs. Cooke came out from under the port-cochere to welcome her.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

To affirm or greet the arrival of someone, especially by saying "Welcome!".

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 January 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)

To accept something willingly or gladly.

en-verb

welcome (third-person singular simple present welcomes, present participle welcoming, simple past and past participle welcomed)

welcomes (present singular third-person)
welcoming (participle present)
welcomed (participle past)
welcomed (past)