Homonyms are words that come from different origins and have different meanings, but are spelt and / or pronounced the same way. I find them relatively rare in Welsh compared to English, but chwim is a good example of one.
As a noun, it is a loan word, borrowed from the English word whim. It’s masculine and the plural is chwimiau. Interestingly, it’s not the only example of the Welsh adding a ch to the beginning of a borrowed English word starting with w – another is chwyrligwgan, which comes from the word whirligig and means a carousel or playground roundabout.
As an adjective, it usually means quick, although historically it could mean smooth or fresh depending on the context. It developed from the proto-Celtic root *suismo, ultimately from the root *suei meaning to turn or to fold. The equative is chwimed (as quick), the comparative is chwimach (quicker), and the superlative is chwimaf (quickest).
chwim
quick / a whim
chwimiau
whims
To me chwim conveys a little more than quick does in English. It’s not just about speed, but also about agility and energy, hence Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru (the Welsh University Dictionary) translating its meaning into English as “swift, nimble, brisk, lively”. You can also use it as an adverb in the construction yn chwim (quickly and nimbly).
This more detailed meaning goes some way to explaining why the adjective chwim was historically also used to mean fresh, although I’ve not heard of this usage in modern Welsh, nor have I heard chwim as smooth. It also explains why chwim is the ideal translation of the quick in quickstep, usually rendered chwimgam in Welsh – it perfectly conveys the speed and agility of this ballroom dawns (dance).
Neidiodd y gath yn chwim i’r soffa.
The cat leapt quickly and nimbly onto the sofa.
For a more straight-forward translation of quick or fast, I would go for cyflym. There is also buan, which usually appears in the expression yn fuan (soon), and sydyn, which is a borrowing of the English word sudden but is usually used to mean quick instead.
Slow is araf. This is the only Welsh word my parents-in-law know – they recognise it from it being painted on the ffyrdd (roads)!
Its meaning as a noun is the same as the English word from which it’s borrowed; it means a whim or a caprice. In some earlier Welsh documents – as this is quite an old loan, recorded as early as the 14th century – it’s spelt chwimp and used more broadly, covering meanings including chance, turn, and gesture.
It is synonymous with mympwy, an indigenous Welsh word with the plural mympwyon, and with ffansi, another borrowing from English. To translate to indulge a whim, you would normally say boddio mympwy. Here, boddio means to satisfy or to please.
There is also a diminutive form of chwim, which is chwimpyn. This usually functions simply as a slightly whimsical (ha!) way of saying chwim, but it’s also used in some areas to mean a prank.
Fe wnaethon nhw penderfynu ar chwim fynd ar wyliau i Ffrainc.
They decided on a whim to go on holiday to France.
My favourite appearance of this word is in the adjective chwim–chwam, which means capricious, fickle, or whimsical. This is interesting because the English word whim is actually a clipping of the previous, longer whim-wham, which meant the same thing as whim.
My least favourite, on the other hand, is probably the expression chwim fel chwannen, which is using the adjective version of the word, and literally means fast like a flea. Not the most pleasant imagery in the world!
