# wold
## English
### Etymology 1

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

* (UK) IPA: /wəʊld/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* (General American) enPR: wōld, IPA: /woʊld/
* Rhymes: -əʊld

#### Noun

wold (plural wolds)
* (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, 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, 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, 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.
* (obsolete) A wood or forest, especially a wooded upland.

##### Usage notes

* 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

* Æthelwold of Winchester
* Barnetby le Wold
* Cotswolds
* Foston on the Wolds
* Lincolnshire Wolds
* Middleton-on-the-Wolds
* Stanton-on-the-Wolds
* Stow-on-the-Wold
* Waltham on the Wolds
* wolder
* Yorkshire Wolds

##### Related terms

* weald
* wald

#### References

* OED 2nd edition 1989

### Etymology 2

From Middle English wolde.

#### Pronunciation

* (UK) IPA: /wəʊld/

#### Adjective

wold (comparative wolder, superlative woldest)
* (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

* dowl, lowd, owld

## Middle English
### Etymology 1

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

#### Alternative forms

* wald, walde, weld, welde, wolde, woolde
* wæld (Early Middle English)

#### Pronunciation

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

#### Noun

wold (plural *woldes)
* wood (wooded area), forest
** c. 1225, St. Margaret of Antioch:
    Þe wurmes & te wilde deor ... o þis wald wunieð.(please add an English translation of this quotation)
** c. 1330, Sir Tristrem:Beliagog in þat nede Fond him riche wald To fine.(please add an English translation of this quotation)
** 1450, Wars of Alexander:Was nouthire waldis in þar walke ne watir to fynde.(please add an English translation of this quotation)
* clearing, plain (open land)
** c. 1275, Layamon, Brut:Ȝif æi mon hine mihte ifinden uppe þissere wælden, ...(please add an English translation of this quotation)
* upland, hill country
* (poetic) land, the world

##### Descendants

* English: wold, weald, wald
* Scots: wald

##### References

* “wōld, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

### Etymology 2
#### Verb

wold
* Alternative spelling of wolde

## Middle Low German
### Noun

wôld
* Alternative spelling of wôlt.