Etymology Dictionary

GALLOP,  to ride very fast.  (F.,—O. Flemish.)   M.E. galopen (with one l); King Alisaunder, ed. Weber, 461.   'Styll he galoped forth right;' Berners, tr. of Froissart, vol. i. c. 140.   We also find the form walopen, in the Romance of Partenay, ed. Skeat, 4827 (and note on p. 259); and the pres. pt. walopande, Morte Arthur, ed. Brock, 2827.—O.F. galoper, to gallop; of which an older form must have been waloper, as shewn by the derivative walopin in Roquefort, spelt galopin in mod. F.   Of Flemish origin.—O. Flemish walop, a gallop.   Delfortie, in his Analogie des Langues Flamande, Allemande, et Anglaise, p. 379, cites the line:  'Ende loopen enen hoghen walop' = and run at a fast gallop, from the Roman van Walewein, l. 1517.   β. Mr. Wedgwood is certainly right in saying that the original significance of wallop is the boiling of a pot; it is retained in the familiar E. potwalloper, a pot-boiler, for which see Webster's Dict.   'The name is taken from the sound made by a horse galloping compared to the walloping or boiling of a pot;' Wedgwood.   γ. The explanation of the suffix is not quite clear, but perhaps it may be the Flem. and Du. op, E. up.   δ. However, the word is a mere extension from the O. Low G. wallen, to boil, amply vouched for by the A.S. weallan, O. Friesic walla, O. Sax. wallan, to boil; cf. Du. wellen, E. well, to spout up, spring up (as water).   From the Teut. base WAL, to turn; and the Aryan ✔WAR, to wind, turn; whence also Lat. uol-uere, to roll, Skt. vára, a turn; E. wal-k (q.v.); and esp. note Skt. valg, to gallop, to go by leaps, to bounce, to move in different ways, to fluctuate; and Skt. val, to move to and fro.   ¶ The existence of Skt. valg, to gallop, suggests that the final -op may be a mere corruption of a final guttural added to the base, just as in E. wal-k.   The usual derivation of gallop from Goth. gahlaupjan, to leap (= E. leap), is clearly wrong.   Der. gallop-ade.