wold

English

Etymology

From Middle English wald, wold, from Old English (Anglian) wald (cf. weald), from Proto-Germanic *walþuz, from Proto-Indo-European *wel(ə)-t- (cf. Welsh gwallt ‘hair’, Lithuanian váltis ‘oat awn’, Serbo-Croatian vlât ‘ear (of wheat)’, Ancient Greek λάσιος (lásios) ‘hairy’). See also the related term weald.

Noun

wold (plural wolds)

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

     And from his further bank Aetolia's wolds espied.

   • Tennyson

     The wind that beats the mountain, blows / More softly round the open wold.

Usage notes

• Used in many English place-names, always hilly tracts of land.
• Wald (German) is a cognate, but a false friend because it retains the original meaning of forest.

Derived terms

• Cotswolds
• Lincolnshire Wolds
• wolder
• Yorkshire Wolds

Related terms

• weald

References

• OED 2nd edition 1989

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Low German

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ʋɔːɫt/

Noun

wold m (genitive woldes)

1. uncapitalized alternative form of Woold

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Middle English

Verb

wold

1. would

References

p. 1, Arthur; A Short Sketch of his Life and History in English Verse of the First Half of the Fifteenth Century, Frederick Furnivall ed. EETS. Trübner & Co.: London. 1864.

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Middle Low German

Alternative forms

• wolt (more common form marking pronunciation rather than morphology)

Etymology 1

From Old Saxon wald, from Proto-Germanic *walþuz, whence also Old English weald, Old Norse vǫllr. The A became O through the influence of the velarised L in the same manner as in Dutch woud.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /wɔːɫt/

Noun

wōld m (Genitive woldes)

1. a wood, a forest

Noun 2

wōld f

1. power; ability to do as one pleases
2. force
3. violence

Alternative forms

• wald
• welde