Etymograph

English

geest

Geest comes from German Geest, and goes back to Low German güst ‘dry, infertile’.

  1. Low Germanmoderngüst‘dry, infertile’
  2. Germanc. 1650–presentGeest
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1827geest

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Low Germanmoderngüst‘dry, infertile’
  2. Germanc. 1650–presentGeest
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1827geest

Earliest quotation: 1827, Georges Cuvier: “the waves, beating agaiņst the geest, were thence repelled…”

The story

Borrowed from German Geest (from Low German güst (“dry, infertile”, adjective), from Middle Low German gēst (“dry, elevated”, literally “cracking, gaping, yawning”)) or Dutch geest (from Middle Dutch geest, from Old Dutch *gēst (‘dry, infertile’)), in either case a substantivization of what was initially an adjective, Proto-Germanic *gais- (‘infertile’), ultimately probably from *gīnan.

Every English word from Low German güst

Today it means

noun A type of slightly raised landscape, with sandy and gravelly soils, that occurs in the plains of Northern Germany, the Northern Netherlands and Denmark.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Low German güst / geest

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