English
forehold
From fore- (prefix meaning ‘positioned at or near the front’) + hold (“the cargo area of an aircraft or ship”).
The story
From fore- (prefix meaning ‘positioned at or near the front’) + hold (‘the cargo area of an aircraft or ship’). Hold is a variant of hole (influenced by hold (verb)), from Middle English hole, hol (‘perforation, hole; cave, cavern; hiding place, shelter; cell, compartment’), from Old English hol (‘hole (in the ground)’), from Proto-West Germanic *hol (‘hollow’), from Proto-Germanic *hulą (‘depression, hollow; hole’), from Proto-Germanic *hulaz (‘hollow’); further etymology uncertain, possibly either from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (‘to cover; to conceal, hide’) or *ḱewh₁- (‘to be strong; to swell’).uncertain The source flags this step as uncertain.
Today it means
noun The forward or front part of the hold of a ship.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / forehold