walk: [OE] Walk originally meant ‘roll about, toss’ (an 11th-century Anglo-Saxon glossary translated Latin ferventis oceani as ‘walking sea’). This gradually broadened out via ‘move about’ to ‘go on a journey’, but the specific application to ‘travelling on foot’ did not emerge until the 13th century. The verb came from a prehistoric Germanic *walkan, which also produced Dutch walken ‘make felt by beating’ and French gauchir ‘turn aside, detour’ (source of English gauche [18]). It is ultimately related to Sanskrit valgati ‘hops’. => gauche
walk (v.)
"travel on foot," c. 1200, a merger of two verbs, 1. Old English wealcan "to toss, roll, move round" (past tense weolc, past participle wealcen), and 2. wealcian "to roll up, curl," from Proto-Germanic *welk- (cognates: Old Norse valka "to drag about," Danish valke "to full" (cloth), Middle Dutch walken "to knead, press, full" (cloth), Old High German walchan "to knead," German walken "to full"), perhaps ultimately from PIE root *wel- (3) "to turn, roll" (see volvox).
The shift in sense is perhaps from a colloquial use of the Old English word or via the sense of "to full cloth" (by treading on it), though this sense does not appear until after the change in meaning. In 13c. it is used of snakes and the passage of time, and in 15c. of wheeled carts. "Rarely is there so specific a word as NE walk, clearly distinguished from both go and run" [Buck]. Meaning "to go away" is recorded from mid-15c. Transitive meaning "to exercise a dog (or horse)" is from late 15c.; meaning "to escort (someone) in a walk" is from 1620s. Meaning "move (a heavy object) by turning and shoving it in a manner suggesting walking" is by 1890. To walk it off, of an injury, etc., is from 1741. Related: Walked; walking.
walk (n.)
c. 1200, "a tossing, rolling;" mid-13c., "an act of walking, a going on foot;" late 14c., "a stroll," also "a path, a walkway;" from walk (v.). The meaning "broad path in a garden" is from 1530s. Meaning "particular manner of walking" is from 1650s. Meaning "manner of action, way of living" is from 1580s; hence walk of life (1733). Meaning "range or sphere of activity" is from 1759. Sports sense of "base on balls" is recorded from 1905; to win in a walk (1854) is from horse racing (see walk-over). As a type of sponsored group trek as a fund-raising event, by 1971 (walk-a-thon is from 1963).
双语例句
1. Do not wait for good things to happen to you. You need to walk towards happiness.
不要等待好事降临，你要向幸福进发。
来自金山词霸 每日一句
2. She went for a brisk walk to work off her frustration.
她快步走了一会儿，以排解心中的沮丧。
来自柯林斯例句
3. A stiff knee following surgery forced her to walk with a limp.
手术后她的膝盖活动不便，走路时被迫跛行。
来自柯林斯例句
4. "Can you walk all right?" the nurse asked him.
“你走路有困难吗？”护士问他。
来自柯林斯例句
5. She noticed her own proud walk had become a shuffle.
