wold

See also: Wold

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English wald, wold, from Old English wald, weald (“highland covered with trees, wood, forest”), from Proto-West Germanic *walþu, from Proto-Germanic *walþuz, from Proto-Indo-European *wel(ə)-t-. Doublet of weald.

Cognates

See also Saterland Frisian Woold (“forest”), West Frisian wâld (“forest”), Bavarian Woid (“forest”), Cimbrian balt (“forest”), Dutch woud (“forest”), German Wald (“forest”), German Low German Woold, Woolt (“forest”), Luxembourgish Wal (“forest”), Mòcheno bòlt (“forest”), Yiddish וואַלד (vald, “forest”), Danish vold (“field, meadow”), val (“plain”), Faroese vøllur (“field, lawn”), Icelandic völlur (“field, lawn”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk voll (“field, meadow”), Swedish vall (“field, meadow”), Welsh gwallt (“hair”), Lithuanian váltis (“oat awn”), Serbo-Croatian vlât (“ear (of wheat)”), Ancient Greek λάσιος (lásios, “hairy”)); also the related term weald.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /wəʊld/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) enPR: wōld, IPA^(key): /woʊld/
• Rhymes: -əʊld

Noun

wold (plural wolds)

1. (archaic, regional) An unforested or deforested plain, a grassland, a moor.
   • c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]:

     Saint Withold footed thrice the ’old;
     He met the nightmare, and her nine fold;

   • 1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], chapter VIII, in Rob Roy. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 180:

     […]—I came with my cousin, Frank Osbaldistone, there, and I must shew him the way back again to the Hall, or he’ll lose himself in the wolds.

   • 1812–1818, Lord Byron, “(please specify |canto=I to IV)”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. A Romaunt, London: […] [F]or John Murray, […]; William Blackwood, Edinburgh; and John Cumming, Dublin; by Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, stanza 69:

     And therefore did he take a trusty band
     To traverse Acarnania forest wide,
     In war well-seasoned, and with labours tanned,
     Till he did greet white Achelous’ tide,
     And from his farther bank Ætolia’s wolds espied.

   • 1832 December (indicated as 1833), Alfred Tennyson, “To J. S.”, in Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 158:

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

   • 1847 November 1, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline, a Tale of Acadie, Boston, Mass.: William D. Ticknor & Company, →OCLC:

     Blossomed the opening spring, and the notes of the robin and bluebird
     Sounded sweet upon wold and in wood, yet Gabriel came not.

   • 1865, Christina Rossetti, “From Sunset to Star Rise”, in Poems‎^[1], Boston: Little, Brown & Co., published 1906, page 26:

     Take counsel, sever from my lot your lot,
     Dwell in your pleasant places, hoard your gold;
     Lest you with me should shiver on the wold,
     Athirst and hungering on a barren spot.

   • 1881, Oscar Wilde, “[Rosa Mystica.] Rome Unvisited.”, in Poems, London: David Bogue, […], →OCLC, canto IV, page 47:

     Before yon field of trembling gold
     Is garnered into dusty sheaves,
     Or ere the autumn’s scarlet leaves
     Flutter as birds adown the wold, […]

   • 1942, Neville Shute, chapter 8, in Pied Piper‎^[2], New York: William Morrow & Co:

     It seemed to be a fairly large and prosperous farm, grouped round a modest country house standing among trees as shelter from the wind. About it rolled the open pasture of the wold, as far as could be seen.

2. (obsolete) A wood or forest, especially a wooded upland.

Usage notes

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

Derived terms

• Æthelwold of Winchester
• Barnetby le Wold
• Cotswolds
• Foston on the Wolds
• Lincolnshire Wolds
• Middleton-on-the-Wolds
• Stanton-on-the-Wolds
• Stow-on-the-Wold
• Waltham on the Wolds
• wolder
• Yorkshire Wolds

Related terms

• weald
• wald

References

• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “wold”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.

Etymology 2

From Middle English wolde.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /wəʊld/

Adjective

wold (comparative wolder, superlative woldest)

1. (archaic, dialect, West Country, Dorset, Devon) Old.
   • 1873, Elijah Kellogg, Sowed by the Wind: Or, The Poor Boy's Fortune, Boston: Lee and Shepard, page 19:

     "[A] girt wind had a-blowed the wold tree auver, so that his head were in the water."

   • 1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, volume 1, London: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., page 7:

     "I've got a wold silver spoon, and a wold graven seal at home, too; but, Lord, what's a graven seal?"

Anagrams

• dowl, lowd, owld

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English weald, wald (“high land covered with wood, woods, forest”), from Proto-West Germanic *walþu, from Proto-Germanic *walþuz.

Alternative forms

• wald, walde, weld, welde, wolde, woolde
• wæld (Early Middle English)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wɔ̝ːld/, (later) /wɔu̯ld/
• (Southern) IPA^(key): /wɛ̝ːld/
• (Northern) IPA^(key): /waːld/, (later) /wɑu̯ld/

Noun

wold (plural *woldes)

1. wood (wooded area), forest
   • c. 1225, St. Margaret of Antioch:

     Þe wurmes & te wilde deor ... o þis wald wunieð.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • c. 1330, Sir Tristrem:

     Beliagog in þat nede Fond him riche wald To fine.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1450, Wars of Alexander:

     Was nouthire waldis in þar walke ne watir to fynde.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. clearing, plain (open land)
   • c. 1275, Layamon, Brut:

     Ȝif æi mon hine mihte ifinden uppe þissere wælden, ...

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

3. upland, hill country
4. (poetic) land, the world

Descendants

• English: wold, weald, wald
• Scots: wald

References

• “wōld, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 2

Verb

wold

1. alternative spelling of wolde

Middle Low German

Noun

wôld

1. alternative spelling of wôlt