forest

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English [edit]

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Etymology [edit]

From Middle English forest, from Old French forest, from Medieval Latin foresta (“open wood”), first used in the Capitularies of Charlemagne in reference to the royal forest (as opposed to the inner woods, or parcus). Displaced native Middle English weald, wald (“forest, weald”), from Old English weald, Middle English scogh, scough (“forest, shaw”), from Old Norse skógr, and Middle English frith, firth (“forest, game preserve”), from Old English fyrhþ.

etymological note

Medieval Latin foresta probably represents the fusion of two earlier words: one taken as an adaptation of the Late Latin phrase forestem silvam (“the outside woods”), mistaking forestem for woods (—a development not found in Romance languages; compare Old French selve (“forest”)); the other is the continuance of an existing word since Merovingian times from Frankish *forhist (“forest, wooded country, game preserve”) as the general word for "forest, forested land". The Medieval Latin term may have originated as a sound-alike, or been adapted as a play on the Frankish word (Gallo-Romans were often outraged by the King's exclusive hunting rights in the "outside forest". Emphasis to "outside" may have been an attempt to evoke danger, or to emphasise that the lands were banned from general note). Frankish *forhist comes from Proto-Germanic *furhisa-, *furhiþ(j)a-, *furhiją (“forest, wooded country”), from Proto-Indo-European *perkʷu- (“coniferous forest, mountain forest, wooded height”), and is cognate with Old High German forst (German Forst, “forest, wooded country”), Middle Low German vorst (“forest”), Old English fyrhþ, fyrhþe (“forest, game preserve, wooded country”), Old Norse fýri (“pine forest”), and Old Norse fjǫrr (“tree”). More at frith, fir.

Latin forestem (“outside”) comes from Latin foris (“outside, out of doors”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰwer- (“door, gate”), akin to English door. More at foreign.
A forest.

Pronunciation [edit]

  • (UK) enPR: fŏr′ĭst, IPA: /ˈfɒɹɪst/, X-SAMPA: /"fQr\.Ist/
  • Audio (UK)
    		(file)
  • (US) enPR: fôr′ĭst, fǒr′ĭst, IPA: /ˈfɔɹɪst/, /ˈfɑɹɪst/, X-SAMPA: /"fOr\.Ist/, /"fAr\.Ist/
  • Audio (US)
    		(file)

Noun [edit]

forest (plural forests)

  1. A dense collection of trees covering a relatively large area. Larger than woods.
  2. Any dense collection or amount.
    • Forest of criticism.
  3. (historical) A defined area of land set aside in England as royal hunting ground or for other privileged use; all such areas.
    • 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, Internal Combustion[1]:
      Throughout the 1500s, the populace roiled over a constellation of grievances of which the forest emerged as a key focal point. The popular late Middle Ages fictional character Robin Hood, dressed in green to symbolize the forest, dodged fines for forest offenses and stole from the rich to give to the poor. But his appeal was painfully real and embodied the struggle over wood.
  4. (graph theory) A disjoint union of trees.

Hyponyms [edit]

Derived terms [edit]

terms derived from forest (noun)

Related terms [edit]

See also [edit]

Translations [edit]

dense collection of trees
any dense collection
graph theory: union of trees

Verb [edit]

forest (third-person singular simple present forests, present participle foresting, simple past and past participle forested)

  1. (transitive) To cover an area with trees.

Translations [edit]

to cover an area with trees

See also [edit]

Anagrams [edit]

Middle French [edit]

Noun [edit]

forest f (plural forests)

  1. forest
    Mais quand il eut mis fin a ses parolles, & que semblablement les forestz resonnãtes se furent appaisées […] (L’Arcadie-Trad-Massin, published 1544, Paris)
    But when he had finished talking, and the forests felt appeased […]

Old French [edit]

Noun [edit]

forest f (oblique plural forests, nominative singular forest, nominative plural forests)

  1. forest

Descendants [edit]

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