Old English 'wealcan' meant 'to roll or toss' — originally about fulling cloth, not going on foot until the 1200s.
To move at a regular pace by lifting and setting down each foot in turn, never having both feet off the ground at once.
From Old English 'wealcan' meaning 'to roll, to toss, to move about,' from Proto-Germanic *walkaną (to roll, to full cloth). The original meaning had nothing to do with bipedal locomotion — it meant to roll or tumble, and was related to the process of fulling cloth (treading or rolling it to thicken it). The modern meaning 'to go on foot' did not emerge until the thirteenth century, making