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A weal is a long raised red mark on the skin, made by a blow — from a whip, a cane, a belt, a branch that whipped back. The skin is not cut; it swells up in a line and stays sore for a while. You will meet the word mostly in stories about beatings, in older novels, and in medical or legal writing describing injuries. It is not an everyday word — in normal British speech people would say a mark or a red mark, and in America the usual word is welt, which is what most should use. British spelling also allows wheal for this, and doctors use wheal for the raised itchy bumps of an allergy or nettle sting, which is a related but slightly different thing. There is a second, quite separate weal, an old and formal word meaning wellbeing or good fortune, kept alive almost only in the phrase 'the common weal' — the good of everyone — which is where the word commonwealth comes from. Those two weals look identical but come from different roots; if you meet the word in a sentence about skin, it is the mark, and if you meet it beside 'common' or 'public', it is the wellbeing one.
（皮膚上被鞭打出的）鞭痕、紅腫條痕；另有古語「福祉」（如 the common weal 公眾福祉）
組成Two different words that ended up spelled the same. The 'wellbeing' weal comes from Old English wela, meaning welfare, prosperity, riches — the same family as 'wealth' and German Wohl. The 'mark on the skin' weal is a variant of 'wale', an old word for a ridge or raised line.
同家族的字
- wealthfrom the same Old English wela, 'wellbeing, riches' — the wellbeing weal, not the skin mark
- commonwealthliterally the common weal, the shared wellbeing of a people
- walethe skin-mark weal is a variant spelling of this old word for a raised ridge
原始詞典資料6 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
wealnoun詞源 1/wiːl/
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obsoleteWealth, riches.
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literaryWelfare, prosperity.
- Therefore for Gods loue, and as we loue the weale of our Soules and Bodies, let us ſo behaue our ſelues, as we may be at peace with God, and may finde grace in the Eyes of this People.
- For whom all this was made, all this will ſoon / Follow, as to him linkt in weal or woe, [...]
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Boon, benefit.
- And indeed I blamed myself and sore repented me of having taken compassion on him and continued in this condition, suffering fatigue not to be described, till I said to myself, "I wrought him a weal and he requited me with my ill; by Allah, never more will I do any man a service so long as I live!"
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Specifically, the general happiness of a community, country etc. (often with qualifying word).
- Yet never was there a time when it more concerned the public weal, that the character of the parliament should stand high.
- The austerity of my tone seemed to touch a nerve and kindle the fire that always slept in this vermilion-headed menace to the common weal [...]
wealnoun詞源 2/wiːl/
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A raised, longitudinal wound, usually purple, on the surface of flesh caused by a stroke of a rod or whip; a welt.
- [A]lthough a few [slaves] live comfortably at Paramaribo, the greateſt number are wretched, particularly thoſe governed by a lady, who have many weals to ſhow, but not the ſmallest indulgence to boaſt of.
- He turned as I struck him and fired full into my face, and the bullet left a weal across my cheek which will mark me to my dying day.
wealverb詞源 2/wiːl/
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To mark with stripes; to wale.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。