English
forest
Forest comes from Old French forest ‘royal hunting ground’, from Early Medieval Latin forestis, whose origin is disputed.
- Early Medieval Latinmodernforestis
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400forest‘royal hunting ground’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form‘a forest or wood’
- Englishearliest quotation 1590same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Early Medieval Latinmodernforestis
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400forest‘royal hunting ground’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form‘a forest or wood’
- Englishearliest quotation 1590same form
Earliest quotation: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book I, Canto VI: “Who after Archimagoes fowle defeat / Led her away…”
Proto-Indo-European *perkʷ- ‘oak’
Proto-Germanic *furhō ‘fir, pine’
Proto-West Germanic *furhu ‘pine’
Old English furh ‘fir, pine’
Middle English firre ‘fir (Abies spp.)’
English fir
Proto-Indo-European *kʷr̥s-ti-s
Proto-Germanic *hurstiz
Proto-West Germanic *hursti ‘thicket, wood, grove’
Old English hyrst ‘hillock, eminence, height, wood, wooded eminence’
Middle English hirste ‘wood, grove’
English hurst
The story
In this sense, mostly displaced the native Middle English wode, from Old English wudu (modern English wood) and Middle English wald, wold, wæld, from Old English wald, weald (modern English wald, weald, wold).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *perkʷ- ‘oak’
Today it means
noun A dense uncultivated tract of trees and undergrowth, larger than woods.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Early Medieval Latin forestis / forest