Wold

Origin

From Middle English wald, wold, from Old English (Anglian) wald (cf. weald), from Proto-Germanic *walþuz, from Proto-Indo-European *wel(ə)-t- (cf. Welsh gwallt ‘hair’, Lithuanian váltis ‘oat awn’, Serbo-Croatian vlât ‘ear (of wheat)’, Ancient Greek λάσιος ‘hairy’). See also the related term weald.

Full definition of wold

Noun

1. An unforested or deforested plain, a grassland, a moor.
2. (obsolete) A wood or forest, especially a wooded upland
• ByronAnd from his further bank Aetolia's wolds espied.
• TennysonThe wind that beats the mountain, blows
  More softly round the open wold.

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

• Cotswolds
• Lincolnshire Wolds
• wolder
• Yorkshire Wolds

Related terms

• weald