Wald German · revision 35972

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=c. 765, Old High German glosses|origins=gem-pro *walþuz}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /valt/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''Wald''' ''m'' (genitive Waldes or Walds, plural Wälder, diminutive Wäldchen n or Wäldlein n)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|gmh|walt]], [[inh|goh|wald]], [[inh|gmw-pro|*walþu]], [[inh|gem-pro|*walþuz|t=forest, wild land]].^(Kluge 2011|968)^(Wiktionary)^(Kroonen 2013) The same word is [[osx|wald]], [[gml|wolt]], [[nl|woud]], [[ofs|wald]] and [[ang|weald|t=forest, wooded upland]], whence [[m|en|wold]], while [[non|vǫllr]] means “field, meadow, ground” and [[sv|vall]] “pasture”.^(Kluge 2011|968)^(Pfeifer 1993)^(Kroonen 2013) No Gothic form is recorded.^(DWB|27, 1072)

+

+ Kluge starts from a sense “tuft”, especially “foliage, leafy twigs”, which was then widened to “forest”, as with [[Busch]].^(Kluge 2011|968) Outside Germanic he compares [[sga|folt|t=hair of the head, foliage]] and [[lt|váltis|t=oat panicle]], from [[ine-pro|*wolət-]], whose zero grade is seen in [[grc|λάσιος|tr=lásios|t=hairy, thickly overgrown]]; these may belong with [[la|vellō|t=to pluck]] and the word for [[Wolle]].^(Kluge 2011|968)^(Orel 2003) Pfeifer gives the same comparison only as a possibility and also mentions a link with [[m|la|saltus|t=wooded mountain land]].^(Pfeifer 1993) The Duden dictionary holds that the word first named land not under cultivation, perhaps “plucked foliage”, and that it may be related to [[wild]];^(Duden 7 2020|918) the Grimms' dictionary also favoured “uncultivated land” as the starting point, which would explain the Norse sense “field”.^(DWB|27, 1072)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Old High German ''wald'' is first recorded in glosses of about 765, then in the Benedictine Rule, Otfrid, the ''Physiologus'', the Vienna Dog Blessing and Notker, meaning “forest, wilderness” and perhaps “treetop”.^(Köbler AHD)^(Schützeichel 2012|369) Middle High German ''walt'' meant a forest, a wooded mountain range, a stand of trees, and also the leafy branches of a tree.^(Pfeifer 1993)^(Köbler MHD) In Hartmann's ''Erec'' a knight rides through a ''rûher walt âne wec'', “a rough forest without a path”.^(Lexer 1872|3, 657)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The old plural was ''walde'' or ''welde'';^(Paul 2002) ''Wälder'' appears now and then from the 15th and 16th centuries and became common in the 17th.^(Paul 2002) The Middle High German dative plural ''walden'' survives in place names such as Unterwalden and Churwalden.^(Paul 2002) The word names wooded mountain ranges, as in [[Schwarzwald]], Thüringer Wald and Bayerischer Wald.^(Paul 2002)^(Adelung 1793) Through the West Germanic word it also passed into [[fro|gaut|t=brushwood]].^(DWB|27, 1072)

+

+ Figuratively a ''Wald'' is a crowd of things that rise up like trees, as a forest of lances or of ships' masts.^(Paul 2002)^(Duden GWDS 1999) After Latin [[m|la|silva|alt=silvae]], 17th-century poets from Opitz on called a collection of mixed poems ''Wälder'', and Herder's ''Kritische Wälder'' (1769) and the Grimms' journal ''Altdeutsche Wälder'' (1813–1816) kept the title.^(Paul 2002)^(Adelung 1793) Ludwig Tieck coined ''Waldeinsamkeit'' in 1796, and it became a catchword of Romantic feeling.^(Paul 2002) In the early 1980s ''Waldsterben'', the dying of trees from air pollution, entered public awareness and was chosen word of the year in 1983.^(Paul 2002) The compound ''Waldhorn'' was borrowed as [[cs|valdhorna]].^(LWP)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 765 – Old High German ''wald'' appears in glosses.^(Köbler AHD)

+ * 14th century – ''Waldbruder'' “forest hermit” is formed after Latin ''eremita''.^(Paul 2002)

+ * 15th century – The adjective ''waldig'' and the plant name ''Waldmeister'' are first recorded.^(Pfeifer 1993)^(Paul 2002)

+ * 17th century – The plural ''Wälder'' becomes common, and poets call collections of poems ''Wälder''.^(Paul 2002)

+ * 1769 – Herder publishes his ''Kritische Wälder''.^(Paul 2002)

+ * 1796 – Tieck coins ''Waldeinsamkeit'' in ''Der blonde Eckbert''.^(Paul 2002)

+ * 1983 – ''Waldsterben'' is word of the year.^(Paul 2002)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|forest]], a large area thickly grown with trees; [[m|en|woods]]: ''Hinter dem Dorf beginnt ein dichter Wald.''^(Duden GWDS 1999)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''ein Wald von …'': a great number of tall things standing close together: ''Über der Stadt erhob sich ein Wald von Kränen.''^(Duden GWDS 1999)^(Paul 2002)

+ # ''(literary studies, dated)'' ''Wälder'' (plural): a [[m|en|miscellany]], a collection of writings or poems.^(Duden GWDS 1999)^(Adelung 1793)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[waldig]]

+ * [[Waldung]]

+ * [[bewaldet]]

+ * [[entwalden]]

+ * [[Waldmeister]]

+ * [[Waldeinsamkeit]]

+ * [[Waldsterben]]

+ * [[Waldhorn]]

+ * [[Urwald]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[Wolle]]

+ * [[wild]]

+ * [[en|wold]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ ''Den Wald vor lauter Bäumen nicht sehen'', to miss the whole for the many details, goes back to Wieland's ''Musarion''.^(Duden GWDS 1999)^(Paul 2002) The proverb ''wie man in den Wald hineinruft, so schallt es heraus'', meaning that people treat you as you treat them, is recorded from Early New High German on.^(Paul 2002)^(Duden GWDS 1999) ''Jemandem einen vom Wald erzählen'' is colloquial for telling someone something untrue.^(Duden GWDS 1999)

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+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}