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.

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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     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: Printed for 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, 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, “Rome Unvisited”, in Poems‎, 12th edition, London: Methuen & Co., published 1913, page 48:

     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, 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

Related terms

• weald
• wald

References

• OED 2nd edition 1989

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): /wɔːld/, (later) /wɔu̯ld/
• (Southern) IPA^(key): /wɛːld/
• (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.