headland

Etymology

It is formed from English head + land,^[2][3][4][5] as Old English hēafodland, also hēafodlond,^[6][7][4][5] from hēafod (“head”) and lond (“land”),^[7] which became Middle English hedeland.^[7][5] Both Anglo-Norman hevedlaunde and Medieval Latin hevedlanda, the latter from about 1200 in British sources, have the same sense and ultimately come from English.^[2] Old English also had hēafodæcer in this sense.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A strip of land at the end of a ploughed field, left for turning the plough: Old English, first quoted in the OED from the Antwerp-London Glossary,^[2] before 1000 according to Dictionary.com.^[5] Etymonline glosses it in the same way.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The first sense belongs to farming: the strip lay at the end of the furrows.^[2][4] It occurs often as a boundary marker in Anglo-Saxon charters,^[2][6][8] and in Middle English as a field name, such as Hefedlant (Gloucestershire, before 1243) and The Havedlond (Berkshire, 1462).^[2] The sense of a steep point of land in the sea is recorded from about 1475, in sailing directions,^[2] though Etymonline dates it from the 1520s;^[4] the OED compares it with an earlier sense of head.^[2] Johnson (1755) gives the promontory first, then "ground under hedges", with a line from Tusser.^[3] The farming sense survived widely in English dialects, often with the first syllable reduced (adlan, addle, hadland), and the plural was the usual form.^[9]

Timeline

• before 1000 – a strip left unploughed at the end of a field.^[2][5]
• before 1243 – Hefedlant, a field name in Gloucestershire.^[2]
• c. 1475 – a point of land projecting into the sea, a cape.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense from the 1520s.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A narrow, usually high point of land jutting out into the sea or a lake; a promontory or cape.^[10][7][2]
2. (agriculture) A strip of land left unploughed at the end of a field, for turning the plough or for access.^[2][7][10]

Related words

• head
• land

Usage notes

Collins gives different pronunciations for the two senses: the second syllable is reduced for the promontory and has a full vowel for the strip of land.^[10] In Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Dorset dialect the English Dialect Dictionary also records headland as an adjective or adverb meaning "headlong, giddy".^[9]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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.
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
7. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ LangScape: The Language of Landscape: Reading the Anglo-Saxon Countryside, King's College London, langscape.org.uk
9. ^ 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)
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins