Old English wealwian "to roll," from West Germanic *walwon, from PIE root *wel- (3) "to turn, revolve." Figurative sense of "to plunge and remain in some state or condition" is attested from early 13c. Related: Wallowed; wallowing. The noun is recorded from 1590s as "act of rolling;" 1841 as "place where an animal wallows."
Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to turn, revolve," with derivatives referring to curved, enclosing objects.
It forms all or part of: archivolt; circumvolve; convoluted; convolution; devolve; elytra; evolution; evolve; Helicon; helicopter; helix; helminth; lorimer; ileus; involve; revolt; revolution; revolve; valve; vault (v.1) "jump or leap over;" vault (n.1) "arched roof or ceiling;" volte-face; voluble; volume; voluminous; volute; volvox; volvulus; vulva; wale; walk; wallet; wallow; waltz; well (v.) "to spring, rise, gush;" welter; whelk; willow.
It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit valate "turns round," ulvam "womb, vulva;" Lithuanian valtis "twine, net," vilnis "wave," apvalus "round;" Old Church Slavonic valiti "roll, welter," vlŭna "wave;" Greek eluein "to roll round, wind, enwrap," eilein "twist, turn, squeeze; revolve, rotate," helix "spiral object;" Latin volvere "to turn, twist;" Gothic walwjan "to roll;" Old English wealwian "roll," weoloc "whelk, spiral-shelled mollusk;" Old High German walzan "to roll, waltz;" Old Irish fulumain "rolling;" Welsh olwyn "wheel."
early 13c., "to defile or pollute with sin," from Old French soillier "to splatter with mud, to foul or make dirty," originally "to wallow" (12c., Modern French souillier), from souil "tub, wild boar's wallow, pigsty," which is from Latin solium "tub for bathing; seat" (from PIE root *sed- (1) "to sit") or else from Latin suculus "little pig," from sus "pig." The literal meaning "to make dirty on the surface, begrime" is attested from c. 1300 in English. Related: Soiled; soiling.
late 14c., basken "to wallow" (especially in warm water or blood, of unknown etymology. The Middle English Compendium rejects the derivation from Old Norse baðask "to bathe oneself" (with loss of middle syllable), reflexive of baða "bathe" (see bathe) + Proto-Germanic *-sik "one's self" (source also of German sich; see -sk).
The meaning "soak up a flood of warmth" is apparently due to Shakespeare's use of the word in reference to sunshine in "As You Like It" (1600). Related: Basked; basking.
"filth, dirt, refuse matter, sewage, liquid likely to contain excrement," c. 1600, a sense extended from Middle English soile "miry or muddy place, bog," especially as a wallow for a hog or a refuge for a hunted deer (early 15c.), from Old French soille "miry place," from soillier (v.) "to make dirty," and in part a native formation from soil (v.). In form and senses also much influenced by soil (n.1). This is the word in the plumber's soil pipe (by 1833) and archaic night-soil.
"goods taken from an enemy, etc.," 1802 (in Charles James's "Military Dictionary," London, which defines it as "Indian term for plunder or pillage"), Anglo-Indian, from Hindi lut, from Sanskrit loptram, lotram "booty, stolen property," from PIE *roup-tro-, from root *reup- "to snatch" (see rip (v.)).
LOOTICS, Ind. A term in India to express a body of irregular horsemen, who plunder and lay waste the country, and harrass the enemy in their march. They may be compared to the Hulans of Europe and other free-booters.
LOOTY WALLOW, Ind. A term of the same import as Lootics.
[James, "Military Dictionary"]
1610s, "slovenly woman," often with implications of moral looseness, probably from troll (v.) in sense of "roll about, wallow."
[A] certain Anne Hayward, wife of Gregory Hayward of Beighton, did in the parishe church of Beighton aforesaid in the time of Divine Service or Sermon there, and when the Minister was reading & praying, violently & boisterously presse & enter into the seat or place where one Elizabeth, wife of Robert Spurlinir, was quietly at her Devotion & Duty to Almighty God and then and there did quarrel chide & braule & being evilly & malitiously bent did use then and there many rayleing opprobrious Speeches & Invectives against the said Elizabeth calling her Tripe & Trallop, to the great disturbance both of the Minister and Congregation. [Archdeaconry of Sudbury, Suffolk, Court Proceedings, 1682]
