field

Pronunciation

• IPA: /fiːld/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English feld, inherited from Old English feld (“plain, pasture, open land”),^[2][3][4] from Proto-West Germanic *felþu,^[5][4] or Proto-Germanic *felþuz.^[2][3] Its cognates are found in West Germanic: Old Saxon feld, Old Frisian feld, Dutch veld and German Feld;^[2][3][4] Etymonline notes that Swedish fält and Danish felt were borrowed from German, and that Finnish pelto (“field”) is believed to come from Germanic.^[3][2] It is probably related to Old English folde (“earth, land”) and Old Norse fold (“earth”).^[2][3][5] Klein and the AHD trace it to Proto-Indo-European *pelə- (“flat; to spread”), the root also of Latin plānus (“flat, level”).^[6][7] It is related to veld and plain.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Open land, a plain, as opposed to woodland: Old English feld, about 725;^[2][3] a piece of land marked off for pasture or tillage from about 1025.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The battlefield is a field in Old English,^[3] and Hoad dates the sense “ground on which a battle is fought” to the 13th century.^[5] The country as opposed to a town is from about 1400.^[8] An area of study or activity is from 1340,^[9] and a large expanse of something, as of ice, from 1547.^[9] The background of a painting or a coat of arms is a field from 1555.^[9] The players or competitors in a contest are the field, and in betting all horses except the favourite.^[4][8] In physics, a region in which a force acts is a later sense.^[10] The verb meant “to go out to fight” in the 16th century,^[3][4] and in cricket “to stop and return the ball” by 1823,^[3][8] with the figurative sense “to deal with questions” from 1902.^[3] “To put a team into the field” is from the early 20th century.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 725 – Old English feld, open land.^[2]
• c. 1025 – land for pasture or tillage.^[8]
• 13th century – a battlefield.^[5]
• 1340 – an area of activity or study.^[9]
• c. 1400 – the country, as opposed to a town.^[8]
• 16th century – verb, to take the field.^[3]
• 1555 – the ground of a painting.^[9]
• 1823 – verb, to field the ball.^[3][8]
• 1902 – verb, to deal with questions.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A broad, level, open stretch of land; a meadow.
2. A piece of land under cultivation, often for a particular crop.
3. An area with a natural resource: an oil field.
4. A wide expanse, as of ice.
5. A battlefield, or a battle.
6. An area of human activity or knowledge.
7. A place of practical work away from a laboratory or office: field research.
8. The area where a sport is played.
9. All the competitors in a contest.
10. (physics) A region in which a force such as gravity or magnetism acts.
11. The background of a painting, flag or coat of arms.

Verb

1. To catch or stop a ball and return it.
2. To put a team or player into play or competition.
3. To answer questions, especially unprepared.

Word family

• misfield

Related words

• veld
• plain
• floor
• feldspar

Usage notes

The American Heritage Dictionary compares field with bailiwick, domain, province, realm, sphere and territory, all meaning an area of activity or interest.^[10]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
8. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
10. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin