Wold

English

Etymology

From Middle English wald, wold, from Old English (Anglian) wald, from Proto-Germanic *walþuz (cf. West Frisian wâld, Dutch woud, German Wald, Swedish vall 'pasture'), from Proto-Indo-European *u̯alt- (cf. Welsh gwallt 'hair', Lithuanian váltis 'ear of oats', Serbo-Croatian {{ Template:Hbs/script |vlât| face=term | lang=hbs }} 'ear of wheat', Ancient Greek λάσιος (lásios, “furry, hairy'”)

Noun

Wold (plural Wolds)

1. An unforested or deforested plain, a grassland, a moor.
2. (obsolete) A wood or forest, especially a wooded upland

Notes

• Used in many English place-names, always hilly tracts of land.

Derived terms

• Cotswolds
• Lincolnshire Wolds
• wolder
• Yorkshire Wolds

Related terms

• Wald (German) is a cognate, but a false friend because it retains the original meaning of forest.

References

• OED 2nd edition 1989