wold
See also: Wold
English
Etymology 1
From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle English wald, wold, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old English (Anglian) wald (compare weald), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Germanic *walþuz, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Indo-European *wel(ə)-t- (compare Norwegian voll ‘field, meadow’, Welsh gwallt ‘hair’, Lithuanian váltis ‘oat awn’, Serbo-Croatian vlât ‘ear (of wheat)’, Ancient Greek λάσιος (lásios) ‘hairy’). See also the related term weald.
Pronunciation
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "UK" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /wəʊld/
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "GA" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. enPR: wōld, IPA(key): /woʊld/
- Rhymes: -əʊld
Noun
wold (plural wolds)
- (archaic, regional) An unforested or deforested plain, a grassland, a moor.
- c. 1605, William Shakespeare, King Lear, Act III, Scene 4,[1]
- Saint Withold footed thrice the ’old;
- He met the nightmare, and her nine fold;
- 1817, Walter Scott, Rob Roy, Volume I, Chapter 8,[2]
- “ […] I came with my cousin, Frank Osbaldistone, there, and I must show him the way back again to the Hall, or he’ll lose himself in the wolds.”
- 1818, Lord Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, stanza 69,[3]
- 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.
- 1833, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “To J. S.” in Poems, London: Edward Moxon, p. 158,[4]
- The wind that beats the mountain, blows
- More softly round the open wold,
- 1847, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline, Part IV,[5]
- 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, Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1906, p. 26,[6]
- 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, “Rome Unvisited” in Poems, London: Methuen & Co., 12th edition, 1913, p. 48,[7]
- 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, Pied Piper, New York: William Morrow & Co., Chapter 8,[8]
- 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.
- c. 1605, William Shakespeare, King Lear, Act III, Scene 4,[1]
- (obsolete) A wood or forest, especially a wooded upland.
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
Related terms
References
- OED 2nd edition 1989
Etymology 2
Pronunciation
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "UK" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /wəʊld/
Adjective
wold (comparative wolder, superlative woldest)
- (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
Middle English
Verb
wold
- Alternative spelling of wolde
Middle Low German
Noun
wôld
- Alternative spelling of wôlt.
Categories:
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/əʊld
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with archaic senses
- Regional English
- English terms with obsolete senses
- English adjectives
- English dialectal terms
- West Country English
- Dorset English
- Devonian English
- English terms with quotations
- en:Forests
- en:Landforms
- Middle English non-lemma forms
- Middle English verb forms
- Middle Low German lemmas
- Middle Low German nouns