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Webster 1913 Edition
Wold
Wold
,Noun.
[OE.
wold
, wald
, AS. weald
, wald
, a wood, forest; akin to OFries. & OS. wald
, D. woud
, G. wald
, Icel. völlr
, a field, and probably to Gr. [GREEK] a grove, Skr. vā[GREEK]a
a garden, inclosure. Cf. Weald
.] 1.
A wood; a forest.
2.
A plain, or low hill; a country without wood, whether hilly or not.
And from his further bank Aetolia’s
wolds
espied. Byron.
The wind that beats the mountain, blows
More softly round the open
More softly round the open
wold
. Tennyson.
Webster 1828 Edition
Wold
WOLD
, in Saxon, is the same as wald and weald, a wood, sometimes perhaps a lawn or plain. Wald signifies also power, dominion, from waldan, to rule. These words occur in names.Definition 2024
wold
wold
English
Noun
wold (plural wolds)
- An unforested or deforested plain, a grassland, a moor.
- (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.
- Byron
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
Middle English
Verb
wold
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.