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Etymology and origin of the English word geld

Pronunciation

geld1 to castrate

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1225 Worcester Glosses
Borrowed from
Old Norse gelda via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Old Norse geldr

Etymology

The word for castrating is inherited from Middle English gelden, probably borrowed from Old Norse gelda (“to castrate”),[2][3][4][5][6][7] from geldr (“barren”).[7][8][9][6] The OED compares Swedish gälla and Danish gilde, both also "to castrate", and does not completely rule out an unrecorded Anglian form Old English *gældan.[5][10] Wiktionary takes the Norse verb from Proto-Germanic *galdijaną (“to castrate”).[1] Etymonline, citing Watkins, and Barnhart go on to a root Proto-Indo-European *ghel- (“to cut”),[3][11] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives "cutting" as the basic meaning, grouping the verb with Old English gelte (“young sow”), Old High German galza (“castrated swine”) and Old Norse galti (“boar”).[12] Barnhart compares galt (“barren”) and Middle Low German gelde (“barren”).[11] Skeat wondered about a link with Gothic 𐌲𐌹𐌻𐌸𐌰 (gilþa, “sickle”),[10] while Klein connected the adjective with yell, supposing an original sense "enchanted, bewitched".[6] Johnson derived the verb from German.[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

To castrate a man or a male animal: about 1225, in the Worcester Glosses to Wærferð's translation of Gregory's Dialogues.[5] Barnhart and Etymonline date the verb to about 1300,[11][3] and the Middle English Dictionary's first quotations for it, in the Nominale, are from about 1350.[2]

Semantic evolution

Barnhart finds the derivative gelding in the surname Geldyng in 1296, and for a gelded man before 1382, in the Wycliffe Bible.[11] From about 1507, in Dunbar, the verb also meant to weaken or to deprive of something essential,[5] then from 1575, in Gascoigne, to cut objectionable passages out of a book.[5] It was extended to the removal of other things, partly after the same uses of Latin castrō: spaying (1557–1869), pruning (about 1523–1709), taking honeycomb from a hive (1568–1672) and husking wheat (1601).[5] Johnson (1755) records three senses: to castrate, to deprive of an essential part (quoting Shakespeare), and to rid of anything immodest (quoting Dryden).[13] The OED says the literal sense is now rare except of animals such as horses.[5] The adjective geld, barren, recorded from about 1225, survives in dialect for cows and ewes,[5][12][14] and also has an uncertain origin, probably Scandinavian.[5] In Staffordshire the verb could mean to stone raisins for cooking, and in Westmorland to beat or outdo.[14]

Timeline

  • c. 1225 – to castrate.[5]
  • c. 1225 – adjective, of women and female animals, infertile.[5]
  • c. 1507 – to weaken, to deprive of something essential.[5]
  • c. 1523 – to prune a plant or tree (obsolete by 1709).[5]
  • 1557 – to spay (obsolete by 1869).[5]
  • 1568 – to take honeycomb from a hive (obsolete by 1672).[5]
  • 1575 – to expurgate a book.[5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To castrate a male animal, especially a horse.[15][12][5]
  2. To deprive of strength or vitality; to emasculate or weaken: The new rules gelded the committee.[15][5][12]
  3. To cut passages out of a book; to expurgate.[12][5]
  4. (obsolete, 1557–1869) To spay.[5][2][12]
  5. (obsolete, about 1523–1709) To prune a plant.[5][12]

Adjective

  1. (dialect) Of a cow or ewe, barren, not bearing young or giving milk.[12][5][8][14]

Word family

  • gelder
  • gelding

geld2 tax, tribute

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1610 Holland's translation of Camden's Britain
Borrowed from
Latin geldum
Ultimate origin
Proto-Germanic *geldą

Etymology

The word for the tax is borrowed from Medieval Latin geldum (“tax paid to the crown”), also gildum, recorded from 1086 in Domesday Book,[5][3][8] from Old English gield (“payment, tax, tribute”), also geld and gild.[5][3][6][16] Merriam-Webster Unabridged goes straight to the Old English noun,[12] and the American Heritage Dictionary adds Middle English geld from the same source.[4] The Old English noun regularly became yield; the OED explains the hard g of geld by the Latin spelling, in which g did not normally stand for /j/, so that the word was borrowed back into English as if it began with /g/.[5] Wiktionary suggests reinforcement by gelt.[1] The noun goes back to Proto-Germanic *geldą (“reward, gift, money”),[1][17] perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *gʰeldʰ- (“to pay”),[17][1] and is cognate with Old High German gelt (“payment”), Old Saxon geld (“payment, recompense”), Old Norse gjald (“tribute, payment”), Gothic 𐌲𐌹𐌻𐌳 (gild, “tribute, tax”) and German Geld (“money”).[18][6][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A tax paid to the Crown by English landholders: 1610, in P. Holland's translation of Camden's Britain.[5][12] Etymonline says about 1600, as a historical term,[3] and the Shorter Oxford dates the noun to the late 15th century.[8]

Semantic evolution

In modern English it is a historians' term for a medieval tax, paid before the Norman Conquest and continued under the Norman kings;[5][3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also gives a division of people or territory that paid it.[12] The second element of Danegeld and wergeld is the same word.[19][6] From before 1640 the verb, Medieval Latin geldāre in origin, was used of land that owed the tax or paid it.[5] In northern English dialect a noun geld still meant a tax or payment in general, surviving in nout-geld, the rate paid for grazing cattle.[14]

Timeline

  • 1086 – Medieval Latin geldum in Domesday Book.[5]
  • 1610 – the tax paid to the Crown.[5][12]
  • before 1640 – verb, of land, to be subject to the tax or to pay it.[5] The Shorter Oxford dates the verb to the mid 19th century.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (history) The crown tax paid under the Anglo-Saxon and Norman kings.[12][5][8]
  2. (history) A division of people or territory paying this tax.[12]

Verb

  1. (history) To levy this tax on.[12][8]
  2. (history) To pay this tax.[12][5][8]

Word family

  • geldable

Usage notes

In South African English geld also means money or cash, recorded from 1882 and taken from Afrikaans.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c 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. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  13. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  14. ^ a b c d 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)
  15. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  16. ^ Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  17. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  18. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  19. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray

Related etymologies

  • rotten · also from Old Norse
  • kindle · also from Old Norse
  • awe · also from Old Norse
  • scar · also from Old Norse
  • crawl · also from Old Norse
  • skate · also from Old Norse
  • troll · also from Old Norse
  • thrive · also from Old Norse
Cite this entry

“Geld.” Etymologically, 6 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/geld. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

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