Etymologically
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vastum

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Forms

vāstum n (genitive vāstī); second declension[1] Medieval spellings include gastum, guastum and wastum.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin vastus (“empty, desolate”), whose neuter was used as a noun.[5][4] Niermeyer derives it from the verb vāstō (“to lay waste”).[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler finds it first in a charter of 770,[4] in the senses of devastation and uncultivated land.[4]

Semantic evolution

In early medieval Latin it meant waste land, deserted and uncultivated; ravage or devastation; and the clearing of a forest.[2] Du Cange glosses it as destruction and quotes the Magna Carta on the guardian of an heir's land.[3] The noun passed through Anglo-French wast into English as waste “desolate, uncultivated land”.[5]

Timeline

  • 770 – A charter has the word.[4]
  • c. 1200 – English has waste “wild, desolate regions”, through Anglo-French from this word.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (Medieval Latin) Waste land, deserted and uncultivated.[2][1]
  2. (Medieval Latin) Devastation, ravage, destruction.[2][3][1]
  3. (Medieval Latin) Deforestation.[2][1]

Usage notes

A second medieval vastum stands for bastum, a packsaddle, in an inventory of 1476 quoted by Du Cange.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  3. ^ a b c d du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
  4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com