See also: Wold

English

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Etymology 1

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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

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Noun

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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: 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[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, “Rome Unvisited”, in Poems[2], 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[3], 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
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  • 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
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References

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  • OED 2nd edition 1989

Etymology 2

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From Middle English wolde.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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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

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Middle English

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Etymology 1

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

Alternative forms

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /wɔːld/, (later) /wɔu̯ld/
  • (Southern) IPA(key): /wɛːld/
  • (Northern) IPA(key): /waːld/, (later) /wɑu̯ld/

Noun

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wold (plural *woldes)

  1. wood (wooded area), forest
  2. clearing, plain (open land)
  3. upland, hill country
  4. (poetic) land, the world
Descendants
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  • English: wold, weald, wald
  • Scots: wald
References
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Etymology 2

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Verb

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wold

  1. Alternative spelling of wolde

Middle Low German

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Noun

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wôld

  1. Alternative spelling of wôlt.