forest

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈfɒr.ɪst/, US /ˈfɔːr.ɪst/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English forest,^[2] borrowed from Old French forest (“forest, wood, woodland”) (modern French forêt),^[3][4] probably ultimately from Late or Medieval Latin forestem silvam “the outside woods”, a term from Charlemagne's capitularies for the royal forest,^[3][4] from Late Latin forestis (“(wood) outside, unenclosed”),^[5][6][2] from forīs (“outside, out of doors”).^[3][5] The sense would be woodland beyond the park, unfenced.^[3][5] The Medieval Latin word may have come through a Germanic source akin to Old High German forst;^[3][4] another theory derives it from Latin forum in the legal sense “court, judgment”, so “land subject to a ban”.^[3] It replaced Old English wudu.^[3] It is related to foreign and forum.^[7][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

An extensive tree-covered district, especially one set aside for royal hunting: late 13th century in Etymonline;^[3] the OED has the legal sense in 1297 and the general one before 1300.^[8]

Semantic evolution

In early use the word had a special legal sense: an area, usually the king's, kept for hunting, a mix of woodland, heath, scrub and farmland less thickly wooded than forests today, with its own laws and officers.^[7][8] William the Conqueror reserved the New Forest in Hampshire as a royal hunting ground in 1079.^[7] From about 1320 it also meant a wild uncultivated waste.^[8][6] In Hampshire dialect it meant open common land.^[9] The verb “to cover with trees” is from 1818, in Keats,^[3][4] though forested is recorded from the 1610s;^[3] the earlier verb was afforest.^[3]

Timeline

• 1297 – a royal hunting ground.^[8]
• before 1300 – a wooded tract.^[8]
• c. 1320 – a wilderness.^[8]
• 1610s – forested.^[3]
• 1818 – verb, to plant with trees.^[3][8]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A dense growth of trees and undergrowth covering a large area.
2. Something like a forest in density or profusion: a forest of masts.
3. In England, an area formerly owned by the sovereign and kept as a royal hunting ground.

Verb

1. To plant trees on; to cover with forest.

Word family

• forestal
• forestation
• forested
• forestless
• forestlike

Related words

• afforest
• reforest
• foreign
• forum
• forester
• deforest
• door

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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)