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Origin and history of weald

weald(n.)

Old English (West Saxon) weald "forest, woodland," specifically the forest between the North and South Downs in Sussex, Kent, and Surrey; a West Saxon equivalent of Anglian wald (see wold). The modern word has an archaic form, and it has been seen as a revival. Related: Wealden.

Entries linking to weald

wold(n.)

"wooded region, forested land, the woods," Old English wald (Anglian), weald (West Saxon, Kentish) "forest, wooded upland," from Proto-Germanic *walthuz, which is reconstructed to be from PIE root *welt- "woods; wild."

Germanic cognates include Old Saxon and Old Frisian wald, Middle Dutch woude, wold, Dutch woud, Middle Low German walde, Old High German wald, German Wald "forest," Swedish vall "pasture," Old Norse völlr "soil, field, meadow."

The sense development from "forested upland" to "rolling open country, downs" (c. 1200) perhaps is from Scandinavian influence, or reflects deforestation in England, or perhaps the shared notion is "hunting ground."

Not current since mid-16c., it survives mainly in place names (e.g. Cotswold). Archaic weald preserves the old form.

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