Etymograph

English

wold

Wold comes from Proto-West Germanic *walþu ‘forest’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *walþuz.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*walþuz1‘forest’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*walþu1‘forest’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150wald1
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500wald1
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1603–1606wold1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English wold
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of King Lear: “Saint Withold footed thrice the ’old; He met the…”.

Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*walþuzWiktionary, English wold‘forest’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*walþuWiktionary, English wold‘forest’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150waldWiktionary, English wold
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500waldWiktionary, English wold
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1603–1606woldWiktionary, English wold. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of King Lear: “Saint Withold footed thrice the ’old; He met the…”

The story

Largely displaced by forest.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *wel- ‘to perceive, see’

lit, walt, welt, lait, 3 more

through Proto-Germanic *walþuz ‘forest’

vole

through Middle English wald

wald, weald

Today it means

noun An unforested or deforested plain, a grassland, a moor.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “wold”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *walþuz / wold

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