Etymologically
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garth

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Pronunciation

  • /ɡɑː(ɹ)θ/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English garth,[2][3] borrowed from Old Norse garðr (“yard, courtyard, fence”),[4][5][6][7][8][2][9] which is cognate with Old English geard (“fenced enclosure”), the source of yard.[4][5][8][7] The OED compares Danish gaard and Swedish gård.[4] The Old Norse word continues Proto-Germanic *gardaz (“courtyard”), also the source of Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌳𐍃 (gards, “house, household, courtyard”), Old Saxon gard (“field, ground, house”) and Old High German gart (“enclosure”).[10][11] Kroonen derives it from the root Proto-Indo-European *gʰerdʰ- and notes that its original sense, a circle, survives in Faroese;[10][12] Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary go back to *gʰer- (“to grasp, enclose”).[5][6] Orel compares Albanian gardh (“fence”) and Proto-Slavic *gordъ (“fence, town”).[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small piece of enclosed ground beside a house or other building, used as a yard, garden or paddock: before 1340, in Rolle's Psalter, which also has the sense "fence, hedge".[4] Etymonline dates the word to the mid-14th century, as a northern and western dialect word.[5]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word meant an enclosed yard, courtyard or garden, and also a hedge or fence; it formed compounds such as appeles garthes, apple orchards, and garth cresse, garden cress.[2] The sense "fence, hedge" became rare.[4][8] From 1609 a garth was also a weir for catching fish, short for fishgarth.[4][8] The word stayed in the dialects where Norse influence was strong, in the east and north of England;[9][4] the English Dialect Dictionary records it in Northumberland, Durham, Cumberland, Westmorland, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire, with forms such as gaath and gath, for a small enclosure near a house or a field.[13] The OED notes that it had become obsolete in Scots.[4] Its best-known modern use, the open court enclosed by a cloister, short for cloister-garth, is recorded only from 1884.[4][8]

Timeline

  • before 1340 – a small enclosed piece of ground beside a building; a yard, garden or paddock.[4][2]
  • before 1340 – a fence or hedge (now rare).[4][8]
  • 1483 – verb, to enclose with a fence (now obsolete).[4]
  • 1609 – a weir for catching fish, a fishgarth.[4]
  • 1884 – the open court within a cloister.[4][8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An open court or quadrangle surrounded by a cloister: The monks walked around the garth in silence.[6][7][14][4]
  2. (archaic) A small enclosed yard, garden or paddock.[6][7][14][15]
  3. A weir or dam for catching fish; a fishgarth.[15][4]
  4. (rare) A fence or hedge.[4][8][2]

Usage notes

In northern English dialect a separate noun garth, a northern form of girth, meant a saddle-girth, a hoop for a barrel and, later, a child's hoop.[4][8][7][13]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ Mayhew, A. L.; Skeat, Walter W. (1888), A Concise Dictionary of Middle English from A.D. 1150 to 1580, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  10. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  11. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  12. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  13. ^ a b 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)
  14. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  15. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster