Etymologically
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field

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 19:50. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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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

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