From Middle English wald, walde, weld, welde, wold, wolde, woolde, wæld, from Old English wald, weald, from Proto-West Germanic *walþu, from Proto-Germanic *walþuz (“forest”), possibly from a Proto-Indo-European *wel- (“to perceive, see”) or *welH- (“to roll, undulate”). Largely displaced by forest. Cognates Compare North Frisian wald, walt (“forest”), Saterland Frisian Woold (“forest”), West Frisian wâld (“forest”), Alemannic German and German Wald (“forest, woods”), Bavarian Woid (“forest, woods”), Cimbrian balt (“forest, woods”), Dutch woud (“forest, woods”), Low German Woold, Woolt (“forest”), Luxembourgish Wal (“forest”), Mòcheno bòlt (“wood, woodland”), Yiddish וואַלד (vald, “forest”), Danish val (“plain”), vold (“field, meadow”), Faroese vøllur (“lawn; field”), Icelandic völlur (“lawn; field”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk voll (“meadow”), Swedish vall (“field, pasture”); also Hittite 𒌑𒂊𒂖𒇻𒍑 (ú-e-el-lu-uš, “meadow, pasture”). See also wald, weald, ultimately of the same origin.
1
Archaic, Regional An unforested or deforested plain, a grassland, a moor.
Saint Withold footed thrice the ’old; He met the nightmare, and her nine fold;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]:
[…]—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.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:
4 more examples
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.1812–1818, Lord Byron, “(please specify |canto=I to IV)”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. A Romaunt, London: […] [F]or John Murray, […]; William Blackwood, Edinburgh; and John Cumming, Dublin; by Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, stanza 69:
The wind that beats the mountain, blows More softly round the open wold,1832 December (indicated as 1833), Alfred Tennyson, “To J. S.”, in Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 158:
Blossomed the opening spring, and the notes of the robin and bluebird Sounded sweet upon wold and in wood, yet Gabriel came not.1847 November 1, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline, a Tale of Acadie, Boston, Mass.: William D. Ticknor & Company, →OCLC:
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.1865, Christina Rossetti, “From Sunset to Star Rise”, in Poems, Boston: Little, Brown & Co., published 1906, page 26:
2
Obsolete A wood or forest, especially a wooded upland.
Derived terms
Æthelwold, Barnetby le Wold, Cotswolds, Foston on the Wolds, Grose Wold, Lincolnshire Wolds, Middleton-on-the-Wolds, Stanton-on-the-Wolds, Stow-on-the-Wold, Waltham on the Wolds, wolder, Yorkshire Wolds
"[A] girt wind had a-blowed the wold tree auver, so that his head were in the water."1873, Elijah Kellogg, Sowed by the Wind: Or, The Poor Boy's Fortune, Boston: Lee and Shepard, page 19:
"I've got a wold silver spoon, and a wold graven seal at home, too; but, Lord, what's a graven seal?"1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, volume 1, London: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., page 7: